The Joubert syndrome protein CEP41 is excluded from the distal segment of cilia in C. elegans

Rare diseases are a fundamental issue in today’s world, affecting more than 300 million individuals worldwide. According to data from Orphanet and OMIM, about 50-60 new conditions are added to the list of over 6,000 clinically distinct diseases each year, rendering disease diagnosis and treatment even more challenging. Ciliopathies comprise a heterogeneous category of rare diseases made up of over 35 distinct diseases, including Joubert syndrome (JBTS; OMIM 213300), that are caused by functional and structural defects in cilia. JBTS is an autosomal recessive condition characterized by a range of symptoms, including cerebellar vermis hypoplasia and poor muscle tone. There are now a total of 38 genes that cause JBTS, almost all of which encode protein products that are found in cilia and cilia-associated compartments, such as the basal body and transition zone. CEP41 is a JBTS-associated protein that is found in cilia and the basal body of mammals, but its localization in other ciliary organisms remains elusive. C. elegans is an excellent model organism for studying the molecular mechanisms of rare diseases like JBTS. We, therefore, decided to use C. elegans to identify the localization of CEP41. Our microscopy analysis revealed that CEPH-41(CEntrosomal Protein Homolog 41) not only localizes to cilia but is excluded from the distal segment of the amphid and phasmid cilia in C. elegans. Furthermore, we discovered a putative X-box motif located in the promoter of ceph-41 and the expression of ceph-41 is regulated by DAF-19, a sole Regulatory Factor X (RFX) transcription factor.