Basal bodies nucleate, anchor, and organize cilia. As the anchor for motile 
cilia, basal bodies must be resistant to the forces directed toward the cell as 
a consequence of ciliary beating. The molecules and generalized mechanisms that 
contribute to the maintenance of basal bodies remain to be discovered. 
Bld10/Cep135 is a basal body outer cartwheel domain protein that has established 
roles in the assembly of nascent basal bodies. We find that Bld10 protein first 
incorporates stably at basal bodies early during new assembly. Bld10 protein 
continues to accumulate at basal bodies after assembly, and we hypothesize that 
the full complement of Bld10 is required to stabilize basal bodies. We identify 
a novel mechanism for Bld10/Cep135 in basal body maintenance so that basal 
bodies can withstand the forces produced by motile cilia. Bld10 stabilizes basal 
bodies by promoting the stability of the A- and C-tubules of the basal body 
triplet microtubules and by properly positioning the triplet microtubule blades. 
The forces generated by ciliary beating promote basal body disassembly in bld10Δ 
cells. Thus Bld10/Cep135 acts to maintain the structural integrity of basal 
bodies against the forces of ciliary beating in addition to its separable role 
in basal body assembly.