title: The Cytoophidium and Its Kind: Filamentation and Compartmentation of Metabolic Enzymes.
abstract: Compartmentation is essential for the localization of biological processes within a cell. In 2010, three groups independently reported that cytidine triphosphate synthase (CTPS), a metabolic enzyme for de novo synthesis of the nucleotide CTP, is compartmentalized in cytoophidia (Greek for "cellular snakes") in bacteria, yeast, and fruit flies. Subsequent studies demonstrate that CTPS can also form filaments in human cells. Thus, the cytoophidium represents a new type of intracellular compartment that is strikingly conserved across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Multiple lines of evidence have recently suggested that polymerization of metabolic enzymes such as CTPS and inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase into filamentous cytoophidia modulates enzymatic activity. With many more metabolic enzymes found to form the cytoophidium and its kind, compartmentation via filamentation may serve as a general mechanism for the regulation of metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom; email: jilong.liu@dpag.ox.ac.uk.|School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; email: liujl3@shanghaitech.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ji-Long
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002451:Cell Compartmentation; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes
keywords: CTP synthase; CTPS; IMPDH; cytoplasm; metabolism; nucleus; organelle