White adipose tissue stores energy and regulates important metabolic processes in the body. "It constantly grows or shrinks, depending on how much energy we consume or burn. Specialized 'stem cell-like' precursor cells play a key role in this process because they have the ability to form new fat tissue," says corresponding author Prof. Dagmar Wachten, co-director of the Institute of Innate Immunity at the UKB. She is also a member of the ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence and the Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRA) "Modeling" and "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn. Unlike mature fat cells, the precursor cells have a small structure called a primary cilium. Primary cilia act as a kind of antenna, which receives signals from the environment and regulates specific signaling pathways. Thereby, they control whether these cells develop into fat cells or connective tissue-like cells. Prof. Wachten sums up: "The regulation of these precursor cells is crucial for the health of white adipose tissue in obesity. We therefore wanted to find out how cilia control the development of precursor cells into fat cells."