A Heat Shock Protein 48 (HSP48) Biomolecular Condensate Is Induced during Dictyostelium discoideum Development

Abstract

During cellular stress, many microbes undergo a transition to a dormant state. This includes the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum that transitions from a unicellular amoeba to a multicellular fruiting body upon starvation. In this work, we identify heat shock protein 48 (HSP48) as a chaperone that is induced during development. We also show that HSP48 forms a biomolecular condensate and is stabilized by polyphosphate. The findings here identify Dictyostelium discoideum as a novel microbe to investigate protein quality control pathways during the transition to dormancy.