UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
What does a Centriole look like? Could you submit a picture, please?
Question Date: 2019-02-13
Answer 1:

Here is an illustration of a centriole pair: centriole 1

In real life (using a very fancy microscope), they look very similar:

centriole 2

What you're seeing in this image is the top of one centriole (lower left) and the side of its partner centriole (upper right). Each dark circle/rod is a microtubule. Everything else in the image is cytoplasm.

Isn't it cool how organized the structure is, and how we can take pictures of something so small?!?!


Answer 2:

I can't send you a picture, but I could find some transmission electron micrographs of centrioles online (see links below). These pictures were taken by shining an electron beam through the centriole and having it absorb electrons (using something called a "transmission electron microscope"), in much the same way that you shine X-rays through bones to see what is inside. This is necessary because centrioles are really small. I could not find any photographs of centrioles taken using an ordinary light-using microscope such as you would use in a classroom, and this is probably the reason.

Here's the image:
here.

Here's the Northwestern University website from which the image was taken:
NorthWestern Univ website.


Answer 3:

Here's an electron microscope picture of 2 centrioles - the top one is lying on its side and shows the microtubules lying next to each other in a circle. The bottom one is perpendicular to the other, and you can see the tops of all the microtubules. These microtubules are in triplets - 3 little o's in a line, and 9 of the little lines of triplets.

centriole 3

In cell biology a centriole is a cylindrical organelle composed mainly of a protein called tubulin. Centrioles are found in most eukaryotic cells. A bound pair of centrioles, surrounded by a shapeless mass of dense material, called the pericentriolar material, makes up a structure called a centrosome (from Wikipedia).

Answer 4:

A centriole is an organelle in the cell that helps the cell divide or make copies of itself. They’re only found in animal cells and they’re made of proteins called microtubules. Without the centrioles, the chromosomes would not be able to move during mitosis.

Each centriole is make of nine triplet groups of microtubules, all grouped together in a circle. Imagine you have 27 straws. If you put glued them in groups of threes (in the shape of a stoplight) and then attached the groups together in a circle, you’d get a centriole. I’ll attach a picture below!

image here


Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use