Abstract
Lipid droplets form the main lipid store in eukaryotic cells. Although all cells seem to be able to generate lipid droplets, their biogenesis, regulatory mechanisms and interactions with other organelles remain largely elusive. In this article, we outline some of the recent developments in lipid droplet cell biology. We show the mobile and dynamic nature of this organelle, and advocate the adoption of a unified nomenclature to consolidate terminology in this emerging field.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the National Institutes of Health, USA. We are extremely grateful to D. Brasaemle, D. Brown, T. Fujimoto, C. Londos, A. Pol, I. Tabas, J. Whitehead and many other colleagues for invaluable discussions on nomenclature during the preparation of this manuscript. We also thank C. Ferguson for assistance with electron microscopy.
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A movie of lipid droplet formation from the American Society for Cell Biology
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Martin, S., Parton, R. Lipid droplets: a unified view of a dynamic organelle. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 7, 373–378 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1912
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1912
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