Optical Control of Microtubule Accumulation and Dispersion by Tau-Derived Peptide-Fused Photo-Responsive Protein

Microtubules, a major component of the cytoskeleton consisting of tubulin dimers, are involved in various cellular functions, including forming axons and dendrites of neurons and retaining cell shapes by forming various accumulated superstructures such as bundles and doublets. Moreover, microtubule-accumulated structures like swarming microtubule assemblies are attractive components for dynamic materials, such as active matter and molecular robots. Thus, dynamic control of microtubule superstructures is an important topic. However, implementing stimulus-dependent control of superstructures remains challenging. This challenge can be resolved by developing designer protein approaches. We have previously developed a Tau-derived peptide (TP), which binds to the inner or outer surface of microtubules depending on the timing of the incubation. In this report, we designed the TP-fused photo-switchable protein Dronpa (TP-Dronpa) that reversibly photoconverts between monomeric and tetrameric states to photocontrol microtubule assemblies. The formation of microtubule superstructures, including bundles and doublets, was induced by tetrameric TP-Dronpa, whereas monomeric TP-Dronpa ensured that microtubules remained dispersed. Tetrameric TP-Dronpa also induced motile aster-like structures and swarming movement of microtubules on a kinesin-coated substrate. The formation/dissociation of these microtubule superstructures can be controlled by light irradiation. This system can generate and photocontrol various microtubule superstructures and provides an approach to facilitate the assembly of dynamic materials for various applications.