Our collaborator solved the structure of CCDC61, a new conserved component of the cilium

Our collaborator, Dr Takashi Ochi (University of Leeds), published a new article on CCDC61/VFL3, a component of the centriole and the primary cilium, in the journal of Structure.

Through computation analyses of 3D protein structures, Dr Ochi previously identified a new protein superfamily consisting of the DNA damage repair proteins XRCC4, XLF and PAXX and the centriolar protein SAS6 (Ochi et al., 2015 Science). In this new paper, Ochi’s group i identified CCDC61/VFL3 as a new member of this superfamily and a paralogue of SAS6 and showed that  CCDC61 forms linear filaments through homodimerisation mediated by the domain conserved among the XRCC4 superfamily. We collaborated with Dr Ochi to contribute to characterising the role of the CCDC61 in the function of the centrosome in cultured human cells.