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CONDENSATE BIOPHYSICS

Droplets take DNA by force

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 981–982 (2021)Cite this article

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Single-molecule experiments can now quantify the surface forces that compete to package tethered DNA into a protein-rich condensate — providing much-needed mechanistic insight into the phase behaviour of the entangled genome in the nucleus.

The cell is faced with a seemingly herculean task: how to neatly compact its mega-base pair genome into the confines of an unyielding nucleus? Decades of research have shown that many levels of chromatin organization — from nucleosomal arrays to chromatin domains — systematically coordinate to rise to this challenge. More recently, mounting evidence has shown that phase separation is also in the mix, mediating condensation and cohesion of the genome on several levels1. Writing in Nature Physics, Thomas Quail et al. report that they have now pinned down exactly how DNA can get pulled into protein-rich droplets using an elegant single-molecule system in vitro2.

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Fig. 1: Protein-mediated phase separation draws DNA strands under low tension into a droplet.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Marina Feric

  2. National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Marina Feric

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  1. Marina Feric
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Correspondence to Marina Feric.

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Feric, M. Droplets take DNA by force. Nat. Phys. 17, 981–982 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01286-0

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