Li Zhenhua, Liu Qing, Ding Han, Meng Zhuojun, Zhao Qi-Hong, Deng Nan-Nan, Zheng Lifei
Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, China.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5837. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61340-w.
Vacuolation is a common phenomenon observed in many subcellular membrane-less organelles, such as paraspeckles, granules and nucleoli. Previous work suggests that such dynamic sub-structuration can be a result of charge disproportion at super-stoichiometric ratios of the assembling component. In this work, we demonstrate that other than remodeling the large coacervate-constituting components, the introduction of small charged motifs, amino acids, can also lead to the formation of static vacuoles in the coacervate droplets. Furthermore, we find that transient vacuolation can be induced when the charged amino acid (L-aspartic acid) is in situ produced in the coacervate droplets. The transient vacuoles can be tuned in lifetimes and initiated repeatedly, which highly resembles the ubiquitous dissipative assemblies in living systems that require a continuous supply of energy or matter. Therefore, our work may suggest an avenue to understand the sub-structuration within subcellular membrane-less organelles.
空泡化是在许多亚细胞无膜细胞器中观察到的常见现象,如旁斑、颗粒和核仁。先前的研究表明,这种动态的亚结构可能是组装成分超化学计量比时电荷不均衡的结果。在这项研究中,我们证明,除了重塑构成大凝聚物的成分外,引入带小电荷的基序(氨基酸)也会导致凝聚液滴中形成静态空泡。此外,我们发现当带电荷的氨基酸(L-天冬氨酸)在凝聚液滴中原位产生时,可以诱导瞬时空泡化。瞬时空泡的寿命可以调节,并能反复引发,这与生命系统中普遍存在的需要持续能量或物质供应的耗散组装非常相似。因此,我们的研究可能为理解亚细胞无膜细胞器内的亚结构提供了一条途径。