Intraflagellar transport drives flagellar surface motility

The assembly and maintenance of all cilia and flagella require intraflagellar transport (IFT) along the axoneme. IFT has been implicated in sensory and motile ciliary functions, but the mechanisms of this relationship remain unclear. Here, we used Chlamydomonas flagellar surface motility (FSM) as a model to test whether IFT provides force for gliding of cells across solid surfaces. We show that IFT trains are coupled to flagellar membrane glycoproteins (FMGs) in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. IFT trains transiently pause through surface adhesion of their FMG cargos, and dynein-1b motors pull the cell towards the distal tip of the axoneme. Each train is transported by at least four motors, with only one type of motor active at a time. Our results demonstrate the mechanism of Chlamydomonas gliding motility and suggest that IFT plays a major role in adhesion-induced ciliary signaling pathways. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00744.001