intraciliary transport particle

GO:0030990 · Appendage · Multiprotein complex · Proposed

Non-membrane-bounded protein particle complex that carries cargo along axonemal microtubules during intraflagellar transport in eukaryotic cilia and flagella. [GO:0030990]

Synonyms: intraflagellar transport particle

Part of: cilium (GO:0005929)

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
IFT particle proteins	Protein	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			UNKNOWN	Protein constituents of the IFT particle complex that shuttles ciliary cargo along the axoneme. `GO:0030990` GO:0030990 identifies the intraciliary transport particle as a protein complex. `DOI:10.1038/nrm952` Rosenbaum and Witman 2002 review IFT particles as protein assemblies that transport cargo during cilium and flagellum assembly and maintenance.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:3055 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii — COMMON: Chlamydomonas flagella use IFT particles for bidirectional transport along the axoneme during flagellar assembly and maintenance. [DOI:10.1038/nrm952]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:3055 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii — Green-algal model in which IFT particles have been used to define intraflagellar transport in eukaryotic flagella. [DOI:10.1038/nrm952]

Functions

IFT particle ciliary cargo transport — Intraciliary transport particles move cargo bidirectionally along axonemal microtubules to assemble and maintain eukaryotic cilia and flagella.
- DOI:10.1038/nrm952 Rosenbaum and Witman 2002 review intraflagellar transport particles as cargo transport assemblies required for cilium and flagellum assembly and maintenance.

Mechanism graphs

IFT particles transport cargo along axonemes (FUNCTION)

IFT-particle proteins form a mobile complex that transports cargo along axonemal microtubules to support cilium assembly and maintenance.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
IFT particle proteins	contribute to	intraciliary transport particle	`GO:0030990` GO:0030990 identifies the intraciliary transport particle as a protein complex.
intraciliary transport particle	transports cargo along	axoneme	`DOI:10.1038/nrm952` Rosenbaum and Witman 2002 review bidirectional IFT-particle transport along Chlamydomonas axonemes.
intraciliary transport particle	supports	cilium assembly	`DOI:10.1038/nrm952` Rosenbaum and Witman 2002 review IFT as required machinery for cilium and flagellum assembly and maintenance.

Discussions

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep the intraciliary transport particle distinct from the complete cilium, the axoneme, and IFT motor complexes. GO:0030990 denotes the mobile IFT protein-particle complex that acts inside the cilium, GO:0005929 denotes the complete membrane-sheathed cilium, and GO:0005930 denotes the axonemal microtubule core on which IFT particles move.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral groundings and copy numbers for IFT-particle proteins and subcomplexes. Rosenbaum and Witman 2002 support IFT particles as ciliary transport protein complexes, but this first child-complex record keeps a reviewed-label-only aggregate instead of guessing exact IFT-A, IFT-B, kinesin-II, dynein-2, InterPro, Pfam, NCBIfam, or UniProtKB groundings.

Evidence

GO:0030990 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the intraciliary transport particle.
GO:0032991 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for protein-containing complex.
GO:0005929 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the containing cilium.
GO:0060271 Gene Ontology biological-process term for cilium assembly.
DOI:10.1038/nrm952 Rosenbaum and Witman 2002, 'Intraflagellar transport', Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.

Curation history

2026-09-30T03:01:49Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-30T03:02:59Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added intraflagellar transport synonymy, protein-complex parentage, cilium parthood, a reviewed-label-only IFT-protein constituent, Chlamydomonas scope and canonical example, an IFT cargo-transport function, GO/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic transport graph, and boundary and component-grounding discussions.

Source: data/structures/appendage/intraciliary_transport_particle.yaml