Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?

There is currently intense interest in the idea that many membraneless organelles might assemble through phase separation of their constituent molecules into biomolecular 'condensates' that have liquid-like properties. This idea is intuitively appealing, especially for complex organelles s...

Szczegółowa specyfikacja

Opis bibliograficzny
1. autor: Raff, J
Format: Journal article
Język:English
Wydane: Elsevier 2019
_version_ 1826287834748682240
author Raff, J
author_facet Raff, J
author_sort Raff, J
collection OXFORD
description There is currently intense interest in the idea that many membraneless organelles might assemble through phase separation of their constituent molecules into biomolecular 'condensates' that have liquid-like properties. This idea is intuitively appealing, especially for complex organelles such as centrosomes, where a liquid-like structure would allow the many constituent molecules to diffuse and interact with one another efficiently. I discuss here recent studies that either support the concept of a liquid-like centrosome or suggest that centrosomes are assembled upon a more solid, stable scaffold. I suggest that it may be difficult to distinguish between these possibilities. I argue that the concept of biomolecular condensates is an important advance in cell biology, with potentially wide-ranging implications, but it seems premature to conclude that centrosomes, and perhaps other membraneless organelles, are necessarily best described as liquid-like phase-separated condensates.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T02:04:36Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:9e8935ac-f6a3-4c39-9944-62ae48f62592
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T02:04:36Z
publishDate 2019
publisher Elsevier
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:9e8935ac-f6a3-4c39-9944-62ae48f625922022-03-27T00:50:53ZPhase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9e8935ac-f6a3-4c39-9944-62ae48f62592EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2019Raff, JThere is currently intense interest in the idea that many membraneless organelles might assemble through phase separation of their constituent molecules into biomolecular 'condensates' that have liquid-like properties. This idea is intuitively appealing, especially for complex organelles such as centrosomes, where a liquid-like structure would allow the many constituent molecules to diffuse and interact with one another efficiently. I discuss here recent studies that either support the concept of a liquid-like centrosome or suggest that centrosomes are assembled upon a more solid, stable scaffold. I suggest that it may be difficult to distinguish between these possibilities. I argue that the concept of biomolecular condensates is an important advance in cell biology, with potentially wide-ranging implications, but it seems premature to conclude that centrosomes, and perhaps other membraneless organelles, are necessarily best described as liquid-like phase-separated condensates.
spellingShingle Raff, J
Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title_full Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title_fullStr Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title_full_unstemmed Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title_short Phase separation and the centrosome: a fait accompli?
title_sort phase separation and the centrosome a fait accompli
work_keys_str_mv AT raffj phaseseparationandthecentrosomeafaitaccompli