BRAINCAKECentrioles
Centrioles are small, hollow cylinders found in animal cells, usually in a pair lying at right angles to each other near the nucleus. Each centriole is about 0.2 µm wide and 0.4 µm long and has no membrane.
Structure
Each centriole is made of microtubules, hollow tubes of the protein tubulin. The microtubules are arranged in nine triplets (groups of three) around the edge of the cylinder, the so-called 9 × 3 arrangement. The pair of centrioles, together with the surrounding material, forms the centrosome, the main microtubule-organising centre of an animal cell.
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Key terms in this lesson
- spindle fibres
- Protein microtubules that form a spindle-shaped structure during cell division and attach to chromosomes to separate them.
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