The cytoskeleton has a unique property such that changes of conformation result in polymerization into a filamentous form. αB-Crystallin, a small heat shock protein (sHsp), has chaperone activities for various substrates, including proteins constituting the cytoskeleton, such as actin; intermediate filament; and tubulin. However, it is not clear whether the “α-crystallin domain” common to sHsps also has chaperone activity for the protein cytoskeleton. To investigate the possibility that the C-terminal α-crystallin domain of αB-crystallin has the aggregation-preventing ability for tubulin, we constructed an N-terminal domain deletion mutant of αB-crystallin. We characterized its structural properties and chaperone activities. Far-ultraviolet (UV) circular dichroism measurements showed that secondary structure in the α-crystallin domain of the deletion mutant is maintained. Ultracentrifuge analysis of molecular masses indicated that the deletion mutant formed smaller oligomers than did the full-length protein. Chaperone activity assays demonstrated that the N-terminal domain deletion mutant suppressed heat-induced aggregation of tubulin well. Comparison of chaperone activities for 2 other substrates (citrate synthase and alcohol dehydrogenase) showed that it was less effective in the suppression of their aggregation. These results show that αB-crystallin recognizes a variety of substrates and especially that α-crystallin domain binds free cytoskeletal proteins. We suggest that this feature would be advantageous in its functional role of holding or folding multiple proteins denatured simultaneously under stress conditions.