How factors are targeted to cilia remains largely unknown. A ciliary localization signal targets the KIF17 motor, important for intraflagellar transport, to cilia through importin-β2 and RanGTP. The biogenesis, maintenance and function of primary cilia are controlled through intraflagellar transport (IFT) driven by two kinesin-2 family members, the heterotrimeric KIF3A/KIF3B/KAP complex and the homodimeric KIF17 motor1,2. How these motors and their cargoes gain access to the ciliary compartment is poorly understood. Here, we identify a ciliary localization signal (CLS) in the KIF17 tail domain that is necessary and sufficient for ciliary targeting. Similarities between the CLS and classic nuclear localization signals (NLSs) suggest that similar mechanisms regulate nuclear and ciliary import. We hypothesize that ciliary targeting of KIF17 is regulated by a ciliary-cytoplasmic gradient of the small GTPase Ran, with high levels of GTP-bound Ran (RanGTP) in the cilium. Consistent with this, cytoplasmic expression of GTP-locked Ran(G19V) disrupts the gradient and abolishes ciliary entry of KIF17. Furthermore, KIF17 interacts with the nuclear import protein importin-β2 in a manner dependent on the CLS and inhibited by RanGTP. We propose that Ran has a global role in regulating cellular compartmentalization by controlling the shuttling of cytoplasmic proteins into nuclear and ciliary compartments.

Cilia dysfunction underlies a class of human diseases with variable penetrance in different organ systems. Across eukaryotes, intraflagellar transport (IFT) facilitates cilia biogenesis and cargo trafficking, but our understanding of mammalian IFT is insufficient. Here we perform live analysis of cilia ultrastructure, composition and cargo transport in native mammalian tissue using olfactory sensory neurons. Proximal and distal axonemes of these neurons show no bias towards IFT kinesin-2 choice, and Kif17 homodimer is dispensable for distal segment IFT. We identify Bardet–Biedl syndrome proteins (BBSome) as bona fide constituents of IFT in olfactory sensory neurons, and show that they exist in 1:1 stoichiometry with IFT particles. Conversely, subpopulations of peripheral membrane proteins, as well as transmembrane olfactory signalling pathway components, are capable of IFT but with significantly less frequency and/or duration. Our results yield a model for IFT and cargo trafficking in native mammalian cilia and may explain the penetrance of specific ciliopathy phenotypes in olfactory neurons.

Axon initial segments (AISs) and nodes of Ranvier are sites of clustering of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) in nervous systems of jawed vertebrates that facilitate fast long-distance electrical signaling. We demonstrate that proximal axonal polarity as well as assembly of the AIS and normal morphogenesis of nodes of Ranvier all require a heretofore uncharacterized alternatively spliced giant exon of ankyrin-G (AnkG). This exon has sequence similarity to I-connectin/Titin and was acquired after the first round of whole-genome duplication by the ancestral ANK2/ANK3 gene in early vertebrates before development of myelin. The giant exon resulted in a new nervous system-specific 480-kDa polypeptide combining previously known features of ANK repeats and β-spectrin–binding activity with a fibrous domain nearly 150 nm in length. We elucidate previously undescribed functions for giant AnkG, including recruitment of β4 spectrin to the AIS that likely is regulated by phosphorylation, and demonstrate that 480-kDa AnkG is a major component of the AIS membrane “undercoat’ imaged by platinum replica electron microscopy. Surprisingly, giant AnkG-knockout neurons completely lacking known AIS components still retain distal axonal polarity and generate action potentials (APs), although with abnormal frequency. Giant AnkG-deficient mice live to weaning and provide a rationale for survival of humans with severe cognitive dysfunction bearing a truncating mutation in the giant exon. The giant exon of AnkG is required for assembly of the AIS and nodes of Ranvier and was a transformative innovation in evolution of the vertebrate nervous system that now is a potential target in neurodevelopmental disorders. Significance Excitable axonal membrane microdomains are unique features of vertebrate nervous systems that are required for normal neuronal signaling and are involved in human neurological disorders. Ankyrin-G is a critical adaptor protein that acquired a giant exon early in vertebrate evolution, resulting in a new nervous system-specific polypeptide that is a master organizer of axonal excitable membranes. Giant ankyrin-G–deficient mice live to weaning and provide a rationale for survival of humans with severe cognitive dysfunction bearing a truncating mutation in the giant exon. The giant exon of ankyrin-G thus was a transformative innovation in evolution of the vertebrate nervous system that now is a potential target in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Cilia regulate diverse functions such as motility, fluid balance, and sensory perception. The cilia of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) compartmentalize the signaling proteins necessary for odor detection; however, little is known regarding the mechanisms of protein sorting/entry into olfactory cilia. Nephrocystins are a family of ciliary proteins likely involved in cargo sorting during transport from the basal body to the ciliary axoneme. In humans, loss-of-function of the cilia–centrosomal protein CEP290/NPHP6 is associated with Joubert and Meckel syndromes, whereas hypomorphic mutations result in Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a form of early-onset retinal dystrophy. Here, we report that CEP290–LCA patients exhibit severely abnormal olfactory function. In a mouse model with hypomorphic mutations in CEP290 [retinal dystrophy-16 mice ( rd16 )], electro-olfactogram recordings revealed an anosmic phenotype analogous to that of CEP290–LCA patients. Despite the loss of olfactory function, cilia of OSNs remained intact in the rd16 mice. As in wild type, CEP290 localized to dendritic knobs of rd16 OSNs, where it was in complex with ciliary transport proteins and the olfactory G proteins G _olf and Gγ ₁₃ . Interestingly, we observed defective ciliary localization of G _olf and Gγ ₁₃ but not of G protein-coupled odorant receptors or other components of the odorant signaling pathway in the rd16 OSNs. Our data implicate distinct mechanisms for ciliary transport of olfactory signaling proteins, with CEP290 being a key mediator involved in G protein trafficking. The assessment of olfactory function can, therefore, serve as a useful diagnostic tool for genetic screening of certain syndromic ciliary diseases.

The olfactory system gives us an awareness of our immediate environment by allowing us to detect airborne stimuli. The components necessary for detection of these odorants are compartmentalized in the cilia of olfactory sensory neurons. Cilia are microtubule-based organelles, which can be found projecting from the surface of almost any mammalian cell, and are critical for proper olfactory function. Mislocalization of ciliary proteins and/or the loss of cilia cause impaired olfactory function, which is now recognized as a clinical manifestation of a broad class of human diseases, termed ciliopathies. Future work investigating the mechanisms of olfactory cilia function will provide us important new information regarding the pathogenesis of human sensory perception diseases.