2020
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18815-9
|View full text |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts
|

Active coacervate droplets as a model for membraneless organelles and protocells

Abstract: Membraneless organelles like stress granules are active liquid-liquid phase-separated droplets that are involved in many intracellular processes. Their active and dynamic behavior is often regulated by ATP-dependent reactions. However, how exactly membraneless organelles control their dynamic composition remains poorly understood. Herein, we present a model for membraneless organelles based on RNA-containing active coacervate droplets regulated by a fuel-driven reaction cycle. These droplets emerge when fuel i… Show more

Help me understand this report
View preprint versions

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
3

Citation Types

2
215
0
7

Year Published

2020
2020
2023
2023

Publication Types

Select...
8
1

Relationship

2
7

Authors

Journals

citations
Cited by 199 publications
(245 citation statements)
references
References 62 publications
(79 reference statements)
2
215
0
7
Order By: Relevance
“…Indeed, such studies result in surprising behavior like dynamic instabilities in synthetic fibers [19] or solutions of nanostructures that oscillate between different colors [35] . However, the field of chemically fueled droplets and emulsions remains mostly unexplored from an experimental perspective [36,37] . Experimental systems of these emulsions could validate theoretical predictions, demonstrate new physical and chemical behavior, and offer valuable insights into the mechanisms relevant for the regulation of membrane‐less organelles.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Indeed, such studies result in surprising behavior like dynamic instabilities in synthetic fibers [19] or solutions of nanostructures that oscillate between different colors [35] . However, the field of chemically fueled droplets and emulsions remains mostly unexplored from an experimental perspective [36,37] . Experimental systems of these emulsions could validate theoretical predictions, demonstrate new physical and chemical behavior, and offer valuable insights into the mechanisms relevant for the regulation of membrane‐less organelles.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Therefore, a prebiotically plausible integrative approach that allows logical integration from the multitudinous inanimate matter might address the transition from the inanimate to life. Nature provides various crude compartments such as lipid vesicles 68 and coacervates 9,10 to serve as prebiotic containers for life-related building blocks. Among them, lipid vesicles are predominantly used due to their structual similarity to the cell envelope of contempory cellular life 11,12 .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Coacervates were hypothesized to have provided chemical reaction centres during the early steps in the origin of life 16 , which is further strengthened by the recent discovery of coacervates in cells as important membraneless organelles 17,18 . However, coacervates are dynamic systems, exhibiting active assembly and disassembly, prone to fuse, and allowing molecule exchange among coacervates 9,19 . Therefore, they fail to provide a stable compartment for specialized cargo loading among coacervates.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Details of this correspondence are, at the time of this writing, too little explored experimentally. The search for practical applications is, at present, mostly limited; known examples include the construction of membrane-less organelles with possible biophysical action 16 , the speculative use of isolated active particles in medicine 17 , and the construction of robot swarms of various kinds 18 . Regarding these examples of applications, a survey of the experimental literature shows too little data about phase diagrams.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%