Formation of Biomolecular Condensates - Lego Explainer

Описание: How Hierarchical Interactions Make Membraneless Organelles Tick Like Clockwork

Jeremy D. Schmit, Marina Feric, Miroslav Dundr

https://www.cell.com/trends/biochemic...

Biomolecular condensates (BMCs) perform diverse functions, including signaling, stress protection, environmental sensing, genome organization, gene expression, RNA processing, and ribosome assembly.

Biomolecular condensation is driven by interactions of varying affinity, including weak interactions between individual sidechains of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), specific binding events involving folded domains, and nearly irreversible amyloid-like structures.

Polymer-like scaffolds with discrete interaction sites, such as nucleic acids, attractive sidechains on IDRs, and proteins with multiple folded domains, form disordered, dynamic networks that can recruit other molecules.

The networks stabilizing condensates often combine multiple types of interactions, and this mixture of interactions gives rise to structural features that encode specific functional characteristics.

We argue that interactions within BMCs have a range of affinities to navigate the competing physical requirements of dynamics and structural specificity.