Basal bodies in cross section

Colour-enhanced view of rows of basal bodies. Each basal body is composed of nine, overlapping tripets of microtubules held together by other proteins. In the basal bodies to the lower left of the image, faint radial protein spokes can be seen connecting the microtubules to a central core. Basal bodies form the base of eucaryotic cilia and flagella. They are essentially structurally the same as centrioles. The diameter of each basal body is 200 nanometres.