Intracellular FUS protein accumulation leads to cytoskeletal, organelle and cellular homeostasis perturbations

The molecular mechanisms that connect the formation of aberrant cytoplasmic FUS condensates to biological malfunction are incompletely understood. Here, we develop an approach to determine the intracellular FUS viscosity in live mammalian cells and find that ALS-related mutant P525L-FUS forms the most viscous condensates and has impaired cytoskeletal mechanoproperties and increased euchromatin formation. We further show that some of the main cellular organelles, e.g., actin/tubulin, lysosomes, mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, are significantly functionally/structurally impaired in the presence of FUS. These may be related to defects in the tubulin network, as the latter facilitates transport, formation, fusion and fission of organelles. We observe significant increases in lysosomal biogenesis, size and pH; moreover, intracellular FUS accumulation significantly promotes cytoplasmic-to-nuclear translocation of TFEB, i.e., the master gene for inducing autophagy. However, despite these, increased autophagy needed for protein aggregate clearance is not observed to occur. Our study reveals that the formation of highly viscous FUS condensates significantly impacts cytoskeletal/organelle function and cellular homeostasis, which are closely associated with cell ageing. This raises the intriguing question as to whether mutant FUS activates similar cell processes as those during cellular senescence.