Biopolymers in vivo articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The biomolecular principles underlying the formation of multiphasic condensates have been difficult to elucidate owing to a paucity of tools, especially within living cells. In this work synthetic orthogonal protein scaffolds alongside molecular simulations are used to highlight how the oligomerization of disordered proteins can asymmetrically drive miscibility–immiscibility transitions.

    • Ushnish Rana
    • , Ke Xu
    •  & Clifford P. Brangwynne

  • Article |

    Cells spatially organize biochemical reactions within membrane-bound and membraneless compartments. The extent to which intrinsically disordered proteins themselves can form discrete compartments or condensed phases is poorly understood. Now a pair of model IDRs that display orthogonality in condensation and the chain features governing selective assembly have been identified.

    • Rachel M. Welles
    • , Kandarp A. Sojitra
    •  & Matthew C. Good

  • Article |

    The complex link between protein sequence and phase behaviour for a family of prion-like low-complexity domains (PLCDs) has now been revealed. The results have uncovered a set of rules—which are interpreted using a stickers-and-spacers model—that govern the sequence-encoded phase behaviour of such PLCDs and enable physicochemical rationalizations that are connected to the underlying sequence composition.

    • Anne Bremer
    • , Mina Farag
    •  & Tanja Mittag

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