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Complexity of molecular crowding in cell-free enzymatic reaction networks

Nature Nanotechnology volume 9, pages 406–407 (2014)Cite this article

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Macromolecules occupy over 30% of a cell's volume, and understanding how macromolecular crowding affects cellular processes is a major challenge in physical biology1,2. In a recent study Tan et al.3 reported on the effects of crowding on gene expression in synthetic cellular systems (Fig. 1a). However, the overall picture of the effect of crowding that emerges from their work is not supported by their experimental evidence, and classical theories of crowding are not interpreted correctly.

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Figure 1: General interpretation of macromolecular crowding and results from Tan and colleagues3.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Dubuc and M. Hansen (Radboud University), G. Rivas and B. Monterroso (CIB-CSIC, Madrid), and B. Poolman and A. Boersma (Groningen) for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant (246812 Intercom), a VICI grant of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Gravity program 024.001.035).

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  1. Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, the Netherlands

    Evan Spruijt, Ekaterina Sokolova & Wilhelm T. S. Huck

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  1. Evan Spruijt
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  2. Ekaterina Sokolova
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  3. Wilhelm T. S. Huck
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Correspondence to Wilhelm T. S. Huck.

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Spruijt, E., Sokolova, E. & Huck, W. Complexity of molecular crowding in cell-free enzymatic reaction networks. Nature Nanotech 9, 406–407 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.110

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