basal body n a minute distinctively staining cell organelle found at the base of a flagellum or cilium and resembling a centriole in structure called also basal granule, kinetosome
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one of the cylindrical cytoplasmic bodies structurally resembling the centriole, from which it originates, located on the subsurface of flagellate protozoa and giving rise to the axoneme. Basal bodies are connected together in longitudinal rows by bundles of fibrils called kinetodesmata. Called also basal granule, blepharoplast, and kinetosome. See also kinetoplast and parabasal b.Medical dictionary. 2011.