Focusing on Phase Separation / Cell, November 29, 2018 (Vol. 175, Issue 6)

A pair of papers focused on tools to study phase separation explain how nucleation forces push and pull genomic loci and how nucleation centers allow low abundance molecules to phase separate. Check out the papers at: www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S00... www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S00....
D. Bracha, M.T. Walls, M.-T. Wei, L. Zhu, M. Kurian, J.L. Avalos, J.E. Toettcher, and C.P. Brangwynne. Mapping Local and Global Liquid Phase Behavior in Living Cells Using Photo-Oligomerizable Seeds. Cell 175.
Y. Shin, Y.-C. Chang, D.S.W. Lee, J.Berry, D.W. Sanders, P. Ronceray, N.S. Wingreen, M. Haataja, and C.P. Brangwynne. Liquid Nuclear Condensates Mechanically Sense and Restructure the Genome. Cell 175.
And read more great research at www.cell.com/cell/home.

[@Superkuh2]

Yeah, phase separation and phase changes are a huge part of biology mostly overlooked. And it's not just for gene expression or organelles where it matters. The action potential itself involves a monovalent to bivalent cation switch which causes the lipid membrane of neurons to undergo a phase transition as part of the action potential itself.

[@jeromeezan2301]

Hi Superkuh.....nice take. Is there anything published in your claim or only speculation?

[@davidkincade7161]

I completely agree- things are much more subtle than portrayed in much of bio-chemistry. Brings many things together... the whole (much maligned) “biophoton” idea, for example... if cells can communicate using light- which seems obvious to me- WOWA! the roll of light (EM- whatever) in... well- everything biological. I agree with previous poster- would like to read more on this :-)

[@Superkuh2]

@@jeromeezan2301 It's an old theory with many modern spins in the literature. Check out "Thermal Biophysics of Membranes: Tutorials in Biophysics" by Thomas Heimburg for a good review.

[@lucascesargomessquillante1192]

Amazing video, tks a lot!

[@jessegrove5456]

Thank you!

[@JudithTheROSE]

The corelets look like follicular dendritic cells

[@user-yv5tn8db7k]

Is there someone tell me how to make this video abstract?