PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Huadong Jiang AU - Man-Hei Cheung AU - Aftab Amin AU - Chun Liang TI - FOP plays a negative role in ciliogenesis and promotes cell cycle re-entry by facilitating primary cilia disassembly AID - 10.1101/627349 DP - 2019 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 627349 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/03/627349.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/03/627349.full AB - Primary cilia are microtubule-based, antenna-like organelles, which are formed in G0 phase and resorbed as cells re-enter the cell cycle. It has been reported that the length of primary cilia can influence the timing of cell cycle progression. However, the molecular links between ciliogenesis and cell cycle progression are not clear. FOP (Fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 Oncogene Partner, also known as FGFR1OP) has been implicated in ciliogenesis. Here, we show that the expression of FOP during cell cycle exit and re-entry is negatively correlated with ciliogenesis. Knockdown of FOP promotes cilia elongation and suppresses timely cilia disassembly. In contrast, ectopic expression of FOP inhibits cilia growth. Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of actin polymerization with Cytochalasin D abrogates FOP-induced cilia disassembly, suggesting that FOP facilitates cilia disassembly by promoting actin cytoskeleton formation. Lastly, knockdown of FOP delays cell cycle re-entry of quiescent cells following serum re-stimulation, and this can be reversed by silencing IFT20 (intraflagellar transport 20), an intraflagellar transport protein essential for ciliogenesis. Collectively, these results suggest that FOP plays a negative role in ciliogenesis and can promote cell cycle re-entry by facilitating cilia disassembly.