bims-fascar 2020-07-19 papers

on Phase separation and cellular architecture

Issue of 2020–07–19
two papers selected by
Victoria Tianjing Yan, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics

Restricting the sizes of condensates.
Beyond Equilibrium Phase Diagrams: Enzymatic Activity Shakes Up Bacterial Condensates.

Elife. 2020 Jul 14. pii: e59663. [Epub ahead of print]9

Restricting the sizes of condensates.

Furqan Dar, Rohit Pappu.

  Computer simulations of model proteins with sticker-and-spacer architectures shed light on the formation of biomolecular condensates in cells.

Keywords:  condensates; metastable droplets; metastable phase separation; molecular biophysics; multivalent proteins; none; organelle sizes; phase separation; physics of living systems; structural biology

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59663
Mol Cell. 2020 Jul 16. pii: S1097-2765(20)30464-0. [Epub ahead of print]79(2): 205-206

Beyond Equilibrium Phase Diagrams: Enzymatic Activity Shakes Up Bacterial Condensates.

Stefan Biedzinski, Baljyot Parmar, Stephanie C Weber.

Phase separation is a thermodynamic process, but cells are inherently out of equilibrium. Guilhas et al. (2020) identify an active process through which an ATP-dependent motor controls the number and position of biomolecular condensates in bacteria.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2020.06.035