Affinity to cellulose is a shared property among coiled-coil domains of intermediate filaments and prokaryotic intermediate filament-like proteins.

Coiled-coil domains of intermediate filaments (IF) and prokaryotic IF-like proteins enable oligomerisation and filamentation, and no additional function is ascribed to these coiled-coil domains. However, an IF-like protein from Streptomyces reticuli was reported to display cellulose affinity. We demonstrate that cellulose affinity is an intrinsic property of the IF-like proteins FilP and Scy and the coiled-coil protein DivIVA from the genus Streptomyces.