Predicted to be involved in cilium assembly. Located in ciliary basal body. Used to study Bardet-Biedl syndrome. Human ortholog(s) of this gene implicated in Bardet-Biedl syndrome; Bardet-Biedl syndrome 9; craniosynostosis; and primary ovarian insufficiency. Orthologous to human BBS9 (Bardet-Biedl syndrome 9).
WB Description
bbs-9 is orthologous to the human parathyroid hormone-responsive B1 gene, also known as BBS9; bbs-9 apart from being required for proper cilium morphology and function, is also required, similar to bbs-1, bbs-5, and bbs-8, for the regulation of insulin release from sensory neurons; bbs-9 mutants exhibit an increased secretion of insulin, daf-7, a neurally expressed TGF-beta ligand, and flp-21, a FRMF-amide neuropeptide; accordingly mutants display body size, feeding and metabolic defects; increased secretion of bbs mutants requires the Rab27/AEX-6 dense-core vesicle exocytosis machinery; the metabolic and ciliary phenotypes of bbs-9 and similar bbs mutants indicate that normal ciliary function is required for detection of food-related stimuli along with the coordination of metabolic, growth and insulin-signaling pathways.