ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, THOMASVOGEL
When two distinct liquids emerge from what was once a mixed solution—such as when oil and vinegar separate in a salad dressing—physicists call the process liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Condiments aside, this phase separation also happens on the microscopic scale, inside cells, where it concentrates biomolecules and facilitates their reactions. While there are several examples of LLPS in eukaryotic cells, the process has been less extensively studied in bacteria because of their tiny size. Consequently, questions remain as to when, how and why LLPS occurs in prokaryotes.
Thanks to a report in Science Advances yesterday (October 20), “LLPS is now . . . firmly confirmed in prokaryotic systems,” Frederic Rousseau, who studies protein aggregation at KU Leuven in Belgium and was not involved in the research, writes in an email to The Scientist. It underlines “how fundamental LLPS is to cellular life and maybe to its ...
