Cilia and flagella play an important role in motility, sensory perception, and the life cycles of eukaryotes, from protists to humans. However, much critical information concerning cilia structure and function remains elusive. The vast majority of ciliary and flagellar proteins analyzed so far are evolutionarily conserved and play a similar role in protozoa and vertebrates. This makes protozoa attractive biological models for studying cilia biology. Research conducted on ciliated or flagellated protists may improve our general understanding of cilia protein composition, of cilia beating, and can shed light on the molecular basis of the human disorders caused by motile cilia dysfunction. The Symposium “From genomics to flagellar and ciliary structures and cytoskeleton dynamics” at ECOP2019 in Rome presented the latest discoveries about cilia biogenesis and the molecular mechanisms of ciliary and flagellum motility based on studies in Paramecium, Tetrahymena, and Trypanosoma. Here, we review the most relevant aspects presented and discussed during the symposium and add our perspectives for future research.

纤毛和鞭毛在从原虫到人类的运动能力，感官知觉和真核生物的生命周期中都起着重要作用。但是，有关纤毛结构和功能的许多关键信息仍然难以捉摸。到目前为止，分析的绝大多数睫毛和鞭毛蛋白在进化上是保守的，并且在原生动物和脊椎动物中起着相似的作用。这使得原生动物成为研究纤毛生物学的有吸引力的生物学模型。对纤毛或鞭毛原生生物进行的研究可能会提高我们对纤毛蛋白组成，纤毛跳动的一般理解，并且可以从运动性纤毛功能障碍引起的人类疾病的分子基础上阐明。草履虫，四膜虫和锥虫。在这里，我们回顾了研讨会上提出和讨论的最相关方面，并为未来的研究添加了我们的观点。