Phase transitions are ubiquitous in nonliving matter, and recent discoveries have shown that they also play a key role within living cells. Intracellular liquid-liquid phase separation is thought to drive the formation of condensed liquid-like droplets of protein, RNA, and other biomolecules, which form in the absence of a delimiting membrane. Recent studies have elucidated many aspects of the molecular interactions underlying the formation of these remarkable and ubiquitous droplets and the way in which such interactions dictate their material properties, composition, and phase behavior. Here, we review these exciting developments and highlight key remaining challenges, particularly the ability of liquid condensates to both facilitate and respond to biological function and how their metastability may underlie devastating protein aggregation diseases.

Summary Phase transitions driven by intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDRs) have emerged as a ubiquitous mechanism for assembling liquid-like RNA/protein (RNP) bodies and other membrane-less organelles. However, a lack of tools to control intracellular phase transitions limits our ability to understand their role in cell physiology and disease. Here, we introduce an optogenetic platform, which uses light to activate IDR-mediated phase transitions in living cells. We use this “optoDroplet” system to study condensed phases driven by the IDRs of various RNP body proteins, including FUS, DDX4, and HNRNPA1. Above a concentration threshold, these constructs undergo light-activated phase separation, forming spatiotemporally-definable liquid optoDroplets. FUS optoDroplet assembly is fully reversible even after multiple activation cycles. However, cells driven deep within the phase boundary form solid-like gels, which undergo aging into irreversible aggregates. This system can thus elucidate not only physiological phase transitions, but also their link to pathological aggregates.

SUMMARY Phase transitions involving biomolecular liquids are a fundamental mechanism underlying intracellular organization. In the cell nucleus, liquid-liquid phase separation of disordered proteins (IDPs) is implicated in assembly of the nucleolus, as well as transcriptional clusters, and other nuclear bodies. However, it remains unclear whether and how physical forces associated with nucleation, growth, and wetting of liquid condensates can directly restructure chromatin. Here we use CasDrop, a novel CRISPR/Cas9-based optogenetic technology, to show that various IDPs phase separate into liquid condensates that mechanically exclude chromatin as they grow, and preferentially form in low-density, largely euchromatic regions. A minimal physical model explains how this stiffness sensitivity arises from lower mechanical energy associated with deforming softer genomic regions. Targeted genomic loci can nonetheless be mechanically pulled together through surface tension-driven coalescence. Nuclear condensates may thus function as mechano-active chromatin filters, physically pulling-in targeted genomic loci, while pushing-out non-targeted regions of the neighboring genome.

CIpXP and other AAA+ proteases recognize, mechanically unfold, and translocate target proteins into a chamber for proteolysis. It is not known if these remarkable molecular machines operate by a stochastic or sequential mechanism or how power strokes relate to the ATP-hydrolysis cycle. Single-molecule optical trapping allows CIpXP unfolding to be directly visualized and reveals translocation steps of ~1–4 nm in length, but how these activities relate to solution degradation and the physical properties of substrate proteins remains unclear. By studying single-molecule degradation using different multi-domain substrates and CIpXP variants, we answer many of these questions and provide evidence for stochastic unfolding and translocation. We also present a mechanochemical model that accounts for single-molecule, biochemical, and structural results, for our observation of enzymatic memory in translocation stepping, for the kinetics of translocation steps of different sizes, and for probabilistic but highly coordinated subunit activity within the CIpX ring.