Organelle biogenesis on a synthetic bead

Self-propagating organelle biogenesis on synthetic beads | bioRxiv Skip to main content Home About Submit ALERTS / RSS Search for this keyword Advanced Search New Results Self-propagating organelle biogenesis on synthetic beads View ORCID Profile Min Peng , Siu-Shing Wong , Bocheng Xiao , Lorena Blaya-Martinez , Liuyi Hu , Zhe Feng , Nada Mohamad , Mehadi Hasan , Saroj Saurya , Zsofi Novak , Joao M. Monteiro , Tess Harrison , Chia-Chun Chang , View ORCID Profile Jordan W. Raff doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.09.698636 Min Peng 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Min Peng Siu-Shing Wong 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Bocheng Xiao 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Lorena Blaya-Martinez 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Liuyi Hu 2 State Key Laboratory of Genetics and Development of Complex Phenotypes, School of Life Sciences & Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University , Shanghai, China Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Zhe Feng 2 State Key Laboratory of Genetics and Development of Complex Phenotypes, School of Life Sciences & Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University , Shanghai, China Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Nada Mohamad 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Mehadi Hasan 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Saroj Saurya 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Zsofi Novak 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Joao M. Monteiro 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Tess Harrison 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Chia-Chun Chang 3 Department of Animal Science and Technology, National Taiwan University; Taipei City , 106 Taiwan Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site For correspondence: jordan.raff{at}path.ox.ac.uk chiachunchang{at}ntu.edu.tw Jordan W. Raff 1 The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford; Oxford , OX1 3RE, UK Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Jordan W. Raff For correspondence: jordan.raff{at}path.ox.ac.uk chiachunchang{at}ntu.edu.tw Abstract Full Text Info/History Metrics Supplementary material Preview PDF Abstract Download figure Open in new tab Graphical Abstract How cells build their many organelles remains poorly understood. Centrosomes are a striking example: structurally complex organelles built from more than one hundred different proteins. Here we show that a synthetic bead can generate centrosome-like particles (CLiPs) in early Drosophila embryos if it is programmed to recruit any one of five essential centrosome assembly proteins. CLiPs behave remarkably like centrosomes: organising centrosomal proteins, microtubules and actomyosin, forming spindle poles, and undergoing multiple rounds of duplication—all in synchrony with the embryonic cell cycle. The beads generate CLiPs because they recruit Plk4, the master regulator of centrosome biogenesis, in a specific manner that stimulates its assembly activity. Thus, recruiting a single protein to a synthetic surface is sufficient to seed the self-assembly of a complex, self-propagating entity. These findings suggest a general framework for organelle biogenesis in which simple localised molecular inputs can seed the self-assembly of highly complex cellular structures. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes The manuscript was rejected without review at Science but then reviewed at Nature. Although it was ultimately rejected, the Reviewers made several helpful suggestions. The manuscript has been redrafted in response to these comments and is also now in a longer format so there is more space to explain the background and logic of the experiments. In addition, we have included several new experiments that address some key issues. Most importantly we show that Plk4 can break symmetry on the bead surface and we provide additional data showing the similarities in the structural architecture of centrioles and CLiPs. Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license . Back to top Previous Next Posted August 28, 2026. Download PDF Supplementary Material Email Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv. NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article. Your Email * Your Name * Send To * Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. 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Raff bioRxiv 2026.01.09.698636; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.09.698636 Share This Article: Copy Citation Tools Self-propagating organelle biogenesis on synthetic beads Min Peng , Siu-Shing Wong , Bocheng Xiao , Lorena Blaya-Martinez , Liuyi Hu , Zhe Feng , Nada Mohamad , Mehadi Hasan , Saroj Saurya , Zsofi Novak , Joao M. Monteiro , Tess Harrison , Chia-Chun Chang , Jordan W. Raff bioRxiv 2026.01.09.698636; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.09.698636 Citation Manager Formats BibTeX Bookends EasyBib EndNote (tagged) EndNote 8 (xml) Medlars Mendeley Papers RefWorks Tagged Ref Manager RIS Zotero Tweet Widget Facebook Like Google Plus One Subject Area Cell Biology Subject Areas All Articles Animal Behavior and Cognition (8164) Biochemistry (19027) Bioengineering (15171) Bioinformatics (45543) Biophysics (22958) Cancer Biology (20187) Cell Biology (27403) Clinical Trials (138) Developmental Biology (14189) Ecology (21468) Epidemiology (2067) Evolutionary Biology (25877) Genetics (16388) Genomics (23907) Immunology (19092) Microbiology (43353) Molecular Biology (18423) Neuroscience (95468) Paleontology (715) Pathology (3045) Pharmacology and Toxicology (5222) Physiology (8304) Plant Biology (16326) Scientific Communication and Education (2119) Synthetic Biology (4663) Systems Biology (10422) Zoology (2432)

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