Active transport of cytoophidia in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

Themetabolic enzyme cytidine triphosphate synthase has recently been found to formmicrometer-sized filamentous structures termed cytoophidia,which are evolutionarily conserved across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The cytoophidium represents a novel type ofmembraneless organelle and behaves dynamically inside the cell. The question of how cytoophidia transport ismediated, however, remains unanswered. For the first time,we detected in this study the active transport of cytoophidia, taking advantage of the fissionyeastSchizosaccharomycespombe as an excellentmodel for studyingmembraneless organelles.Wedemonstrated that actinfilaments,not microtubules, are responsible for this transport. Furthermore,wedetermined thatMyo52, a type ofmyosin V, is required for the active transport of cytoophidia. These results reveal the major players critical to the dynamics of cytoophidia and extend our understanding of intracellular transport ofmembraneless organelles.