Current practices in the study of biomolecular condensates: a community comment.

Abstract

The realization that the cell is abundantly compartmentalized into biomolecular condensates has opened new opportunities for understanding the physics and chemistry underlying many cellular processes, fundamentally changing the study of biology. The term biomolecular condensate refers to non-stoichiometric assemblies that are composed of multiple types of macromolecules in cells, occur through phase transitions, and can be investigated by using concepts from soft matter physics. As such, they are intimately related to aqueous two-phase systems and water-in-water emulsions. Condensates possess tunable emergent properties such as interfaces, interfacial tension, viscoelasticity, network structure, dielectric permittivity, and sometimes interphase pH gradients and electric potentials–. They can form spontaneously in response to specific cellular conditions or to active processes, and cells appear to have mechanisms to control their size and location–. Importantly, in contrast to membrane-enclosed organelles such as mitochondria or peroxisomes, condensates do not require the presence of a surrounding membrane.