Ado G, Noda N, Vu HT, Perron A, Mahapatra AD, Arista KP, Yoshimura H, Packwood DM, Ishidate F, Sato SI, Ozawa T, Uesugi M. Discovery of a Phase-Separating Small Molecule That Selectively Sequesters Tubulin in Cells.
Chem Sci 2022;
13:5760-5766. [PMID:
35694339 PMCID:
PMC9116451 DOI:
10.1039/d1sc07151c]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Phase-separated membraneless organelles or biomolecular condensates play diverse functions in cells, however recapturing their characteristics using small organic molecules has been a challenge. In the present study, cell-lysate-based screening of 843 self-assembling small molecules led to the discovery of a simple organic molecule, named huezole, that forms liquid droplets to selectively sequester tubulin. Remarkably, this small molecule enters cultured human cells and prevents cell mitosis by forming tubulin-concentrating condensates in cells. The present study demonstrates the feasibility of producing a synthetic condensate out of non-peptidic small molecules for exogenous control of cellular processes. The modular structure of huezole provides a framework for designing a class of organelle-emulating small molecules.
A non-peptidic small molecule, R-huezole, phase separates to selectively sequester tubulin proteins to control the cell cycle. Its modular structure provides a framework for designing bioactive molecules to mimic membraneless organelles in cells.![]()
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