A new organelle: Hemifusome

🧠 You know, I am a scientist and despite of having taken almost 3 week of vacation, my curious brain is always looking for interesting news related to my expertise...

During my break, I read an article about the discovery of a 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞...

😱 What? ... Yes... You are reading well!

A new organelle called '𝐇𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞'

Fascinating, isn't it?

𝐇𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 acts as a '𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐤' or 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫, facilitating the formation of vesicles (small transport packages) and the transfer of material within the cell. They are 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 that appear and disappear depending on cell necessities, that have been observed thanks to advanced techniques such as 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐓𝐄𝐂 (cryogenic electron tomography).

Alterations in membrane fusion pathways involving hemifusome intermediates have been linked to:

- 𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬
- 𝐋𝐲𝐬𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬
- 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠

This finding, led by the University of Virginia and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), represents a 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲.

Have you heard about 'Hemifusome'?



Reference

Tavakoli, A., Hu, S., Ebrahim, S. et al. Hemifusomes and interacting proteolipid nanodroplets mediate multi-vesicular body formation. Nat Commun 16, 4609 (2025). https://lnkd.in/egMnpP69