Intraflagellar transport: A critical player in photoreceptor development and the pathogenesis of retinal degenerative diseases

In vertebrate vision, photons are detected by highly specialized sensory cilia called outer segments. Photoreceptor outer segments form by remodeling the membrane of a primary cilium into a stack of flattened disks. Intraflagellar transport (IFT) is critical to the formation of most types of eukaryotic cilia including the outer segments. This review covers the state of knowledge of the role of IFT in the formation and maintenance of outer segments and the human diseases that result from mutations in genes encoding the IFT complex and associated motors.