TAILS AS ANTENNAE

摘要

Why does nearly almost every kind of human cell in the body have a single, non-beating tail protruding from its surface? For decades many biologists dismissed these primary cilia as unimportant, but a few thought they must be useful. In 1985, for instance, Anthony Poole suggested that they were nothing less than "cellular cybernetic probes". And around the turn of the century, the evidence to support this view finally began to emerge.