Molecules and Cells

Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (한국분자세포생물학회)
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Rich Phase Separation Behavior of Biomolecules

  • Shin, Yongdae (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2021.08.01
  • Accepted : 2021.09.10
  • Published : 2022.01.31
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (NRF-2019R1C1C1006477), the National Convergence Research of Scientific Challenges (NRF-2020M3F7A1094300), and Creative-Pioneering Researchers Program through Seoul National University.

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