Division of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
Center of Systems Biology and Human Health, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
Nat Neurosci. 2020 Mar;23(3):301-310. doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0579-9. Epub 2020 Feb 3.
Emerging evidence indicates that liquid-liquid phase separation, the formation of a condensed molecular assembly within another diluted aqueous solution, is a means for cells to organize highly condensed biological assemblies (also known as biological condensates or membraneless compartments) with very broad functions and regulatory properties in different subcellular regions. Molecular machineries dictating synaptic transmissions in both presynaptic boutons and postsynaptic densities of neuronal synapses may be such biological condensates. Here we review recent developments showing how phase separation can build dense synaptic molecular clusters, highlight unique features of such condensed clusters in the context of synaptic development and signaling, discuss how aberrant phase-separation-mediated synaptic assembly formation may contribute to dysfunctional signaling in psychiatric disorders, and present some challenges and opportunities of phase separation in synaptic biology.
新出现的证据表明，液-液相分离，即在另一种稀释水溶液中形成凝聚的分子组装，是细胞在不同亚细胞区域中组织具有广泛功能和调节特性的高度凝聚生物组装体（也称为生物凝聚物或无膜隔室）的一种手段。在神经元突触的突触前末梢和突触后密度中决定突触传递的分子机制可能就是这种生物凝聚物。在这里，我们回顾了最近的研究进展，这些进展表明液-液相分离如何构建密集的突触分子簇，突出了这种凝聚簇在突触发育和信号转导背景下的独特特征，讨论了异常的液-相分离介导的突触组装形成如何导致精神疾病中信号转导功能障碍，并介绍了突触生物学中液-相分离的一些挑战和机遇。
