{"title":"Primary cilium disappearance in podocytes during vertebrate phylogeny revealed by array tomography.","authors":"Takayuki Miyaki, Jingyuan Xu, Makoto Sugiura, Hisako Kaneda, Juan Alejandro Oliva Trejo, Yuto Kawasaki, Takuya Omotehara, Takako Negishi-Koga, Muneaki Ishijima, Junji Yamaguchi, Soichiro Kakuta, Koichiro Ichimura","doi":"10.1007/s00441-025-04002-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Podocytes are a type of epithelial cells that form the kidney nephron and are essential for ultrafiltration in the glomerulus. The majority of nephron constituent cells have primary cilia, which play an important role in the maintenance of normal tubular architecture of nephron. However, whether podocytes have primary cilia was only partially understood. In general, immunohistochemistry with an anti-acetylated α-tubulin antibody is often used to visualize primary cilia. α-Tubulin is highly acetylated throughout podocytes, and this antibody is not suitable to determine the presence or absence of primary cilia in podocytes, which is one reason why the presence of primary cilia in podocytes has remained unclear. In the present study, we determined the presence or absence of primary cilia in mature podocytes of six vertebrate species using a recently reported array tomography workflow optimized for whole glomerulus analysis. The proportion of podocytes with primary cilia tended to decrease with evolution as follows: 89.6% in river lampreys (Agnatha), 42.1% in zebrafish (Osteichthyes), 43.3% in African clawed frogs (Amphibia), 17.3% in Reeves' turtles (Reptilia), 10.4% in common quails (Aves), and 0.0% in Wistar rats (Mammalia). Our previous study has reported that, in rats, primary cilia are present in podocytes during development and disappear in mature podocytes. In other words, primary cilia disappear from podocytes during both phylogeny and ontogeny in vertebrates. We discuss the triggers and significance of primary cilium disappearance from vertebrate podocytes.</p>","PeriodicalId":9712,"journal":{"name":"Cell and Tissue Research","volume":" ","pages":"51-63"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cell and Tissue Research","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-025-04002-z","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/8/29 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Podocytes are a type of epithelial cells that form the kidney nephron and are essential for ultrafiltration in the glomerulus. The majority of nephron constituent cells have primary cilia, which play an important role in the maintenance of normal tubular architecture of nephron. However, whether podocytes have primary cilia was only partially understood. In general, immunohistochemistry with an anti-acetylated α-tubulin antibody is often used to visualize primary cilia. α-Tubulin is highly acetylated throughout podocytes, and this antibody is not suitable to determine the presence or absence of primary cilia in podocytes, which is one reason why the presence of primary cilia in podocytes has remained unclear. In the present study, we determined the presence or absence of primary cilia in mature podocytes of six vertebrate species using a recently reported array tomography workflow optimized for whole glomerulus analysis. The proportion of podocytes with primary cilia tended to decrease with evolution as follows: 89.6% in river lampreys (Agnatha), 42.1% in zebrafish (Osteichthyes), 43.3% in African clawed frogs (Amphibia), 17.3% in Reeves' turtles (Reptilia), 10.4% in common quails (Aves), and 0.0% in Wistar rats (Mammalia). Our previous study has reported that, in rats, primary cilia are present in podocytes during development and disappear in mature podocytes. In other words, primary cilia disappear from podocytes during both phylogeny and ontogeny in vertebrates. We discuss the triggers and significance of primary cilium disappearance from vertebrate podocytes.
期刊介绍:
The journal publishes regular articles and reviews in the areas of molecular, cell, and supracellular biology. In particular, the journal intends to provide a forum for publishing data that analyze the supracellular, integrative actions of gene products and their impact on the formation of tissue structure and function. Submission of papers with an emphasis on structure-function relationships as revealed by recombinant molecular technologies is especially encouraged. Areas of research with a long-standing tradition of publishing in Cell & Tissue Research include:
- neurobiology
- neuroendocrinology
- endocrinology
- reproductive biology
- skeletal and immune systems
- development
- stem cells
- muscle biology.