Holehouse Alex S, Pappu Rohit V
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Biological Systems Engineering , Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis , Missouri 63130 , United States.
Biochemistry. 2018 May 1;57(17):2415-2423. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b01136. Epub 2018 Jan 24.
Intracellular environments are heterogeneous milieus comprised of macromolecules, osmolytes, and a range of assemblies that include membrane-bound organelles and membraneless biomolecular condensates. The latter are nonstoichiometric assemblies of protein and RNA molecules. They represent distinct phases and form via intracellular phase transitions. Here, we present insights from recent studies and provide a perspective on how phase transitions that lead to biomolecular condensates might contribute to cellular functions.
细胞内环境是由大分子、渗透溶质以及一系列组件构成的异质环境，这些组件包括膜结合细胞器和无膜生物分子凝聚物。后者是蛋白质和RNA分子的非化学计量组件。它们代表不同的相，并通过细胞内相变形成。在这里，我们展示了近期研究的见解，并就导致生物分子凝聚物的相变如何可能有助于细胞功能提供了一个观点。
