2. Academic Validation
  3. Kinase-controlled phase transition of membraneless organelles in mitosis

Kinase-controlled phase transition of membraneless organelles in mitosis

  • Nature. 2018 Jul;559(7713):211-216. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0279-8.
Arpan Kumar Rai 1,  Jia-Xuan Chen 2 3,  Matthias Selbach 2 4,  Lucas Pelkmans 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2 Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
  • 3 Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
  • 4 Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
  • 5 Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. [email protected].
PMID: 29973724 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0279-8
Abstract

Liquid-liquid phase separation has been shown to underlie the formation and disassembly of membraneless organelles in cells, but the cellular mechanisms that control this phenomenon are poorly understood. A prominent example of regulated and reversible segregation of liquid phases may occur during mitosis, when membraneless organelles disappear upon nuclear-envelope breakdown and reappear as mitosis is completed. Here we show that the dual-specificity kinase DYRK3 acts as a central dissolvase of several types of membraneless organelle during mitosis. DYRK3 kinase activity is essential to prevent the unmixing of the mitotic cytoplasm into aberrant liquid-like hybrid organelles and the over-nucleation of spindle bodies. Our work supports a mechanism in which the dilution of phase-separating proteins during nuclear-envelope breakdown and the DYRK3-dependent degree of their solubility combine to allow cells to dissolve and condense several membraneless organelles during mitosis.

Figures