Flagella of this alga is used for locomotion and the flagellar proteins are important for its security. "The flagellar gene is now popularly recognised as the watchtower of a cell and loss of any ciliary protein function leads to serious diseases including cancer," she said.

The CBS scientists have name the cloned gene as CBS-1, she said. Algae are now popularly used for generating biofuels and understanding how biomotors work.

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The flagella of this alga (or cilia in the case of humans) are structures involved in processing environmental signals and interpret these signals either to move the cell towards or away from the same.

The long-term aim in the CBS lab is to recognise these very proteins, clone the genes involved in the movement of biomotors so as to eventually design a functional nanomachine, D'Souza who is working with two of her Ph.D students Dolly Khona and Venkatramanan Rao, said.

CBS, is an autonomous institution funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and Univeristy of Mumbai.