Cilia and flagella are cell organelles that are structurally similar but are

differentiated based on their function and/or length. Cilia and flagella are built
from arrays of microtubules.
Cilia are short and there are usually many (hundreds) cilia per cell. On the other
hand, flagella are longer and there are fewer flagella per cell (usually one to
eight).
Though eukaryotic flagella and motile cilia are structurally identical, the beating
pattern of the two organelles can be different. The motion of flagella is often
undulating and wave-like, whereas the motile cilia often perform a more
complicated 3D motion with a power and recovery stroke.

Cilia Flagella
Definition Cilia are short, hair like appendages Flagella are long, threadlike
extending from the surface of a appendages on the surface
living cell. of a living cell.

Cross section Nexin arm present. Nexin arm absent.

Length Short Longer than cilia, can vary

Motion Rotational, like a Wave-like, undulating,

motor, very fast sinusoidal, slow movement compared to
moving cilia

Found in Eukaryotic cells Eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells

Types of cilia and flagella

There two types of cilia - motile and non-motile or primary cilia.

Non-motile or primary cilia are found in nearly every cell in all

mammals and as the name suggests these do not beat. They can be
found in human sensory organs such as the eye and the nose.

Motile cilia are found on the surface of cells and they beat in a rhythmic
manner. They can be found in the lining of the trachea (windpipe), where
they sweep mucus and dirt out of the lungs. In female mammals, the
beating of cilia in the fallopian tubes moves the ovum from the ovary to
the uterus.
 There are three types of flagella - bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic.

Bacterial flagella are helical filaments that rotate like screws. They are
found in E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium. There may be one, two or
many such flagella per cell. These flagella provide motility to bacteria.

Archaeal flagella are similar to bacterial flagella but they have a unique
structure which lacks a central channel.

Eukaryotic flagella are complex cellular projections that lash back and
forth. (e.g., the sperm cell, which uses its flagellum to propel itself
through the female reproductive tract.

Cytoskeleton
It is a microscopic network of protein filaments and tubules in the cytoplasm of many living
cells. Primarily, it gives the cell shape and mechanical resistance to deformation and allowing
cells to migrate and segregates chromosomes during cellular division.

The cytoskeleton is made up of three kinds of protein filaments:

Actin filaments (also called microfilaments)

Intermediate filaments and

Microtubules

In 1903, Nikolai K. Koltsov termed the cytoskeleton.

Microtubules--
 are straight, hollow cylinders whose wall is made up of a ring of 13
"protofilaments";

have a diameter of about 25 nm;

are variable in length but can grow 1000 times as long as they are wide;

are built by the assembly of dimers of alpha tubulin and beta tubulin;

are found in both animal and plant cells. In plant cells, microtubules are
created at many sites scattered through the cell. In animal cells, the
microtubules originate at the centrosome.

The attached end is called the minus end; the other end is the plus end.

grow at the plus end by the polymerization of tubulin dimers (powered by

the hydrolysis of GTP), and

shrink by the release of tubulin dimers (depolymerization) at the same end.

Microtubules participate in a wide variety of cell activities. Most involve

motion.

They play key roles in:

intracellular transport (associated with dyneins and kinesins, they

transport organelles like mitochondria or vesicles).

the axoneme of cilia and flagella.

the mitotic spindle.formation.

synthesis of the cell wall in plants.

In nine triplet sets (star-shaped), they form the centrioles, and in nine
doublets oriented about two additional microtubules (wheel-shaped), they
form cilia and flagella. The latter formation is commonly referred to as a
"9+2" arrangement.

Microtubule motors

There are two major groups of microtubule motors:

kinesins (most of these move toward the plus end of the microtubules) and
 dyneins (which move toward the minus end).

Some examples:
The migration of chromosomes in mitosis and meiosis takes place on microtubules
that make up the spindle fibers. Both kinesins and dyneins are used as motors.