The ALS-Associated FUS (P525L) Variant Does Not Directly Interfere with Microtubule-Dependent Kinesin-1 Motility

The Diez lab, in collaboration with the Hermann lab in Rostock, Germany, have utilised an in vitro microtubule gliding motility assay to study deficient intracellular transport in motor neurons. The findings  exclude a role of mutations in the phase-separating FUS protein, known to be mutated in…

Cytoskeletal organization through multivalent interactions

Stefan Diez and collaborators Zdenek Lansky and Marcus Braun from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, published an Opinion article emphasizing the role of multivalent interactions cytoskeletal phenomena including (1) the generation of entropic forces by…

Kinetically distinct phases of tau on microtubules regulate kinesin motors and severing enzymes

The Diez and Hyman labs, in collaboration with the Lansky and Braun lab at the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic, published a study on the role of phase separation of the intrinsically disordered Tau protein  in regulating the activity of motor proteins and…

Local nucleation of microtubule bundles through tubulin concentration into a condensed tau phase

Theskeleton that supports the structure of our cells, termed cytoskeleton is formed of several kinds of polymers including actin and microtubules. How the single units on the polymers (monomers and dimers) are concentrated to gether to synthesize the polymer is the subject of this study by the labs…