Membraneless organelles: phasing out of equilibrium. Issue 3 (11th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hondele, Maria; Heinrich, Stephanie; De Los Rios, Paolo; Weis, Karsten
• Editors: Nott, Tim; Baldwin, Andrew
• Is Part Of: Emerging topics in life sciences. Volume 4:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 343
• Page End: 354
• Publication Date: 2020-12-11
• Subjects: cellular functions of biological condensates -- liquid–liquid phase separation -- membraneless organelles -- non-equilibrium steady-state -- protein chaperones and RNA helicases; Life sciences -- Periodicals; 570.5
• DOI: 10.1042/ETLS20190190
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2397-8554

Abstract

Abstract : Over the past years, liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a ubiquitous principle of cellular organization implicated in many biological processes ranging from gene expression to cell division. The formation of biological condensates, like the nucleolus or stress granules, by LLPS is at its core a thermodynamic equilibrium process. However, life does not operate at equilibrium, and cells have evolved multiple strategies to keep condensates in a non-equilibrium state. In this review, we discuss how these non-equilibrium drivers counteract solidification and potentially detrimental aggregation, and at the same time enable biological condensates to perform work and control the flux of substrates and information in a spatial and temporal manner.