High-frequency nanometre-scale vibration in 'quiescent' flagellar axonemes

THE movement of cilia and flagella is based on the interaction between dynein arms and microtubules coupled with ATP hydroly-sis. Although it is established that dynein arms cause adjacent microtubules to slide, little is known about the elementary process underlying the force production. To look more closely at the mechano-chemical conversion mechanism, we recently developed an optical method for measuring a nanometre-scale displacement with a time-resolution better than 1 ms. We now report the detection of high frequency ( ∼ 300 Hz) vibration of sub-nanometre ampli-tude in non-beating flagellar axonemes. This vibration could reflect the movement of individual activated dynein arms.

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