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A biochemical timer phases condensates in and out in cells

The interior of the cell is organized with the help of dynamic structures that condense like droplets. A timing strategy ensures that cells maintain healthy function by avoiding uncontrolled growth of these condensates.
  1. Guillaume Charras

    1. Guillaume Charras is at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London WC1H 0AH, UK, and in the Department of Cell and Development Biology, University College London.

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  2. Martin Lenz

    1. Martin Lenz is at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Statistical Models, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LPTMS, 91405 Orsay, France, and PMMH, CNRS, ESPCI Paris, PSL University, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Paris, France.

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Living cells are experts at multitasking. They perform myriad vital functions with a limited set of tools through the creation of specialized compartments. In some cases, the compartments are enclosed by a lipid membrane, but molecules can also be grouped into amorphous clumps known as liquid condensates, whose contents fluctuate as molecules diffuse in and out of them. The integrity of these condensates is maintained by thermodynamics, in the same way as an oil droplet resists dissolving in water. But their dynamic behaviour poses a challenge: what prevents a cell’s components from forming one giant clump? Writing in Nature, Yan et al.1 report a biochemical timing mechanism used by cells to avoid catastrophic clumping during the formation of the actin cytoskeleton — the protein network that gives cells their structure.

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Nature 609, 469-470 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01794-w

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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