Wheatley Denys N
BioMedES, Leggat House, Keithhall, Inverurie, Aberdeen AB51 0LX, UK.
Cell Biol Int. 2005 May;29(5):333-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cellbi.2005.03.001.
Primary cilia have had a long research history since 1898, but only in the last few years have investigations become intense. Only a few people took an interest in them until recently, when the consequences of their agenesis or dysfunction suddenly became apparent to all. Their function changed overnight from being speculative to being fully "acknowledged" as sensory, and the consequence of their lacking sensory function(s) led to a bonanza for cell and molecular biologists interested in the impact on clinical disease and disorder. Furthermore, once the medical profession had insight not just into the etiology of an extremely rare syndrome (situs inversus), but into one as prevalent as polycystic kidney disease, furious research activity sprang up in numerous centres, symposium were convened, special sessions arranged, and topical reviews written in all sorts of journals. Without an understanding of the history of research about this organelle, many reviews gave little credit to those who had persevered earlier to make key advances in primary cilium research, and most ignore the wealth of information on them that has relevance to fundamental (cell) biology as well as to medicine. Some of the "landmarks" presented here will hopefully provide a little guidance and a better perspective.
自1898年以来，初级纤毛就有着悠久的研究历史，但直到最近几年，相关研究才变得密集起来。直到最近，只有少数人对它们感兴趣，此时它们的缺失或功能障碍所带来的后果才突然变得显而易见。它们的功能一夜之间从具有推测性变为被完全“认可”为具有感觉功能，而其感觉功能缺失的后果为那些对临床疾病和紊乱影响感兴趣的细胞和分子生物学家带来了机遇。此外，一旦医学界不仅深入了解了一种极为罕见的综合征（内脏反位）的病因，还深入了解了像多囊肾病这样普遍的疾病病因，众多研究中心便涌现出了激烈的研究活动，召开了研讨会，安排了特别会议，并在各类期刊上撰写了专题综述。如果不了解关于这种细胞器的研究历史，许多综述就不会对那些早期坚持不懈在初级纤毛研究中取得关键进展的人给予应有的肯定，而且大多数综述都忽略了与基础（细胞）生物学以及医学相关的关于它们的大量信息。这里呈现的一些“里程碑”有望提供一些指导并带来更好的视角。
