Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA; email:
Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2021 Jun 17;72:17-46. doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-081720-015238. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
A surge in research focused on understanding the physical principles governing the formation, properties, and function of membraneless compartments has occurred over the past decade. Compartments such as the nucleolus, stress granules, and nuclear speckles have been designated as biomolecular condensates to describe their shared property of spatially concentrating biomolecules. Although this research has historically been carried out in animal and fungal systems, recent work has begun to explore whether these same principles are relevant in plants. Effectively understanding and studying biomolecular condensates require interdisciplinary expertise that spans cell biology, biochemistry, and condensed matter physics and biophysics. As such, some involved concepts may be unfamiliar to any given individual. This review focuses on introducing concepts essential to the study of biomolecular condensates and phase separation for biologists seeking to carry out research in this area and further examines aspects of biomolecular condensates that are relevant to plant systems.
过去十年中，人们对理解控制无膜隔室形成、性质和功能的物理原理的研究急剧增加。核仁、应激颗粒和核斑等隔室被指定为生物分子凝聚物，以描述它们共同的空间浓缩生物分子的特性。尽管这项研究在动物和真菌系统中已有历史，但最近的工作已经开始探索这些相同的原则是否与植物有关。有效地理解和研究生物分子凝聚物需要跨越细胞生物学、生物化学以及凝聚态物理和生物物理学的跨学科专业知识。因此，某些相关概念可能对任何给定的个体都不熟悉。这篇综述的重点是为希望在该领域开展研究的生物学家介绍生物分子凝聚物和相分离研究的基本概念，并进一步研究与植物系统相关的生物分子凝聚物的各个方面。
