Stable intermicrotubule linkers in the isolated cytostomal apparatus of Tetramitus

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Detergent lysis of Tetramitus rostratus flagellates liberates intact a "cytostomal apparatus" composed of four flagella, their basal bodies, and several striated flagellar rootlets, as well as an unusually stable array of long cytoskeletal microtubules. Cytostomal apparatuses, purified on 5–15% Ficoll gradients and negatively stained with uranyl acetate, reveal abundant arrays of intermicrotubule linkers (IMTLs). These linkers, which are irregularly spaced vertically at approximately 50-nm intervals, appear to limit intermicrotubule distances to about 120 nm. The IMTLs of Tetramitus are unusually long, unusually abundant, and unusually stable: it is speculated that they represent an exaggerated form of (and hence a means to identify) a universal component of the microtrabecular lattice of eukaryote cells.