Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Interdisciplinary Program in Bioengineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Mol Cells. 2022 Jan 31;45(1):6-15. doi: 10.14348/molcells.2021.0204.
Phase separation is a thermodynamic process leading to the formation of compositionally distinct phases. For the past few years, numerous works have shown that biomolecular phase separation serves as biogenesis mechanisms of diverse intracellular condensates, and aberrant phase transitions are associated with disease states such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Condensates exhibit rich phase behaviors including multiphase internal structuring, noise buffering, and compositional tunability. Recent studies have begun to uncover how a network of intermolecular interactions can give rise to various biophysical features of condensates. Here, we review phase behaviors of biomolecules, particularly with regard to regular solution models of binary and ternary mixtures. We discuss how these theoretical frameworks explain many aspects of the assembly, composition, and miscibility of diverse biomolecular phases, and highlight how a model-based approach can help elucidate the detailed thermodynamic principle for multicomponent intracellular phase separation.
相分离是一种导致组成不同相形成的热力学过程。在过去的几年中，许多研究表明，生物分子相分离是多种细胞内凝聚物形成的机制，异常的相转变与神经退行性疾病和癌症等疾病状态有关。凝聚物表现出丰富的相行为，包括多相内部结构、噪声缓冲和组成可调性。最近的研究开始揭示分子间相互作用网络如何产生凝聚物的各种生物物理特性。在这里，我们回顾了生物分子的相行为，特别是二元和三元混合物的正则溶液模型。我们讨论了这些理论框架如何解释不同生物分子相的组装、组成和混溶性的许多方面，并强调了基于模型的方法如何有助于阐明多组分细胞内相分离的详细热力学原理。
