Definition
Cilia are membrane-bounded, centriole-derived, microtubule-containing, hair-like extensions of the apical plasma membrane.
Introduction
Cilia are common surface modifications present on nearly all cell types in mammals. The term cilium (Latin word, meaning “eyelash”) was first used by Otto Friedrich Muller in 1786. Cilia were first observed by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1674–1675; he called them animalcules which mean motile thin little feet or little legs (Sengupta 2017).
Initially, the cilia would not be able to gain the importance that it deserved and was relegated to a very minor role in moving out the mucous from respiratory tract. Over the years of research, they found that the cilia were present virtually in every tissue including fallopian tubes, neurons, chondrocytes, limb bud ectoderm and mesenchymal cells, ependymal cells of brain ventricles, kidney tubule epithelial cells, pancreatic duct and islet cells,...
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Krishna, H. (2019). Cilia. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1421-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1421-1
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