Stentor perialgal microtubule meshwork

cellstructuremech:stentor_perialgal_microtubule_meshwork · Cytoskeleton · Other · Proposed

An irregular cortical microtubule meshwork characterized in Stentor pyriformis, with gaps occupied by algal endosymbionts in perialgal vacuoles. The named basket system denotes host cytoskeletal architecture, not regular cages, the symbionts themselves, their vacuole membranes, or the longitudinal Km-fiber bundles. [DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571]

Image (not hosted — CC_BY_4_0): PMC12005096.1:F3

Figure 3: beta-tubulin immunofluorescence and chlorophyll signal in Stentor pyriformis (A), with six optical sections through an expanded cortical microtubule meshwork (B). FLUORESCENCE · Stentor pyriformis (NCBITaxon:2721102) · Boudreau et al., Figure 3, The cell biology and genome of Stentor pyriformis, a giant cell that embeds symbiotic algae in a microtubule meshwork, Molecular Biology of the Cell (2025), doi:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571, via PubMed Central; CC BY 4.0. Link only; no repository copy or adaptation. · CC_BY_4_0 · source: PMC PMC12005096.1:F3 · DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571

Synonyms: microtubule basket system

Part of: GO:0030863 — cortical cytoskeleton (no local record)

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
Beta tubulin	Protein	part of	`InterPro:IPR002453`			UNKNOWN	Tubulin subunit detected in the cortical microtubule meshwork. `DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571` Figure 3 and microscopy Methods identify beta-tubulin immunofluorescence; the primary antibody was Sigma T0198. This does not resolve native paralogues or assembly essentiality. `InterPro:IPR002453` Authority entry verifies the Beta tubulin family label.

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:2721102 Stentor pyriformis — Imaged host species; ENA exact-name lookup verifies the identifier. No genus-wide prevalence or absence assertion is made. [DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571]

Functions

Proposed cortical positioning of endosymbionts — The authors propose that the meshwork helps retain algal endosymbionts near the host cortex; a meshwork-specific causal requirement has not been established.
- DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571 The surface-association Discussion proposes anchoring from cortical organization. Centrifugation displaces algae but is not a selective microtubule perturbation.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (RESOLVED): Distinguish the perialgal meshwork from generic microtubules, Km fibers and unrelated baskets. Basket terminology alone does not identify a regular cage or a shared structure across taxa.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve mesh-associated linkers and test a selective requirement for cortical symbiont positioning. Tubulin staining and spatial association do not identify attachment molecules or establish causation.
CURATION_TODO (RESOLVED): Keep symbionts and neighboring structures outside the molecular constituent list. Association with a host cytoskeleton is not membership of that cytoskeleton or evidence of organelle fixation.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Reconcile PMC license metadata before attempting hosted-image ingestion. The explicit article copyright statement and the structured PMC license-code field differ in completeness.

Evidence

DOI:10.1091/mbc.E24-12-0571 Boudreau et al. (2025), PMID 39937680. Main-text Introduction, Results, Discussion and Methods read in official JATS; Figure 3 inspected in the PDF. Supplementary movies were not inspected.
GO:0005622 Non-obsolete intracellular anatomical structure: broad is-a parent, not an exact identity mapping.
GO:0030863 — cortical cytoskeleton Non-obsolete cortical cytoskeleton: encompassing framework, used as part_of.

Curation history

2026-10-04T01:53:04Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-10-04T01:56:05Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added directly imaged beta-tubulin meshwork evidence, verified host and hierarchy, qualified positioning hypothesis, explicit structure and mechanism limits, and link-only Figure 3 with license metadata caveat.

Source: data/structures/cytoskeleton/stentor_perialgal_microtubule_meshwork.yaml