Alshareedah Ibraheem, Kaur Taranpreet, Banerjee Priya R
Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.
Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States.
Methods Enzymol. 2021;646:143-183. doi: 10.1016/bs.mie.2020.06.009. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
Biomolecular condensates are membrane-less sub-cellular compartments that perform a plethora of important functions in signaling and storage. The material properties of biomolecular condensates such as viscosity, surface tension, viscoelasticity, and macromolecular diffusion play important roles in regulating their biological functions. Aberrations in these properties have been implicated in various neurodegenerative disorders and certain types of cancer. Unraveling the molecular driving forces that control the fluid structure and dynamics of biomolecular condensates across different length- and time-scales necessitates the application of innovative biophysical methodologies. In this chapter, we discuss major experimental techniques that are widely used to study the material states and dynamics of biomolecular condensates as well as their practical and conceptual limitations. We end this chapter with a discussion on more advanced tools that are currently emerging to address the complex fluid dynamics of these condensates.
生物分子凝聚物是无膜的亚细胞区室，在信号传导和储存中发挥着众多重要功能。生物分子凝聚物的材料特性，如粘度、表面张力、粘弹性和大分子扩散，在调节其生物学功能中起着重要作用。这些特性的异常与各种神经退行性疾病和某些类型的癌症有关。要揭示在不同长度和时间尺度上控制生物分子凝聚物流体结构和动力学的分子驱动力，需要应用创新的生物物理方法。在本章中，我们将讨论广泛用于研究生物分子凝聚物的材料状态和动力学的主要实验技术，以及它们在实际应用和概念上的局限性。本章最后将讨论目前正在出现的更先进的工具，以解决这些凝聚物复杂的流体动力学问题。
