Cytoophidia and filaments: you must unlearn what you have learned

Chen-Jun Guo; Ji-Long Liu

doi:10.1042/BST20221410

Cytoophidia and filaments: you must unlearn what you have learned

Biochem Soc Trans. 2023 Jun 28;51(3):1245-1256. doi: 10.1042/BST20221410.

Authors

Chen-Jun Guo¹, Ji-Long Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
² Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, U.K.

PMID: 37248970
DOI: 10.1042/BST20221410

Abstract

The nucleotide CTP can be synthesized de novo from UTP via the metabolic enzyme CTP synthase (CTPS). As a textbook enzyme, CTPS has been extensively studied for seven decades. However, it came as a surprise when CTPS was found to form snake-shaped mesoscale cytoophidia in fruit fly cells. Since 2010, more and more studies have demonstrated that CTPS can form cytoophidia within the cells across all three domains of life. Oligomers of CTPS form filaments that are undetectable under light microscopy. This review summarizes our current understanding of cytoophidia and filaments, highlighting some basic features such as conservation, morphology and functions of the two levels of CTPS structures.

Keywords: ctp synthase; cytoophidium; metabolic enzyme; metabolic filament.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cytoskeleton* / metabolism
Drosophila*
Microscopy
Nucleotides / metabolism

Substances

Nucleotides