Droplets of Life: Membrane-Less Organelles, Biomolecular Condensates, and Biological Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation

Droplets of Life: Membrane-Less Organelles, Biomolecular Condensates, and Biological Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation provides foundational information on the biophysics, biogenesis, structure, functions and roles of membrane-less organelles. The study of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation has attracted a lot of attention from disciplines such as Cell Biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry and others trying to understand how, why and what roles these condensates play in homeostasis and disease states in living organisms. This book's editor recruited a group of international experts to provide a current and authoritative overview of all aspects associated with this exciting area. Sections introduce MLOs and Biomolecular Condensates, MLOs in different sizes, shapes and composition and the formation of MLOs due to phase separation and how it can tune reactions, organize the intracellular environment, and provide a role in cellular fitness. Review The go-to reference on Biomolecular Condensates and Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Biological Systems From the Back Cover <p><i>Droplets of Life: Membrane-Less Organelles, Biomolecular Condensates, and Biological Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation </i>aims at providing foundational information on the biophysics, biogenesis, structure, functions and roles of membrane-less organelles and condensates in health and disease states. The study of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation has attracted a lot of attention from disciplines such as Cell Biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry and others trying to understand how, why and what roles these condensates play in homeostasis and disease states in living organisms. The editor recruited a group of international experts to provide a current and authoritative overview of all aspects associated with this exciting area.</p> <p>The first part of the book is devoted to introducing MLOs and Biomolecular Condensates. Although the cellular interior is crowded with various biological macromolecules, the distribution of these macromolecules is highly inhomogeneous, and cells contain numerous membrane-less organelles (MLOs). These MLOs are condensed liquid droplets formed as a result of the reversible and highly controlled liquid-liquid phase separation. MLOs are different in size, shape, and composition, and almost invariantly contain intrinsically disordered proteins, which indicates that the formation of these phase-separated droplets is crucially dependent on intrinsic disorder. Part two is focused on the Biology aspects of MLOs. Protein phase separation is a physiological process used by the cell to reach several goals. The formation of MLOs due to phase separation can tune reactions, organize the intracellular environment, and has a role in cellular fitness. Part three covers Pathological roles of LLPS. Although protein LLPS has multiple physiological roles in the cell, changes in the environment can cause physiological phase transitions to become pathological and lead to disease phenotypes. In fact, several maladies, such as various cancers, different neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases are known to be associated with either aberrant LLPS or some pathological transformations within the resultant MLOs.</p> About the Author VLADIMIR N. UVERSKY is a Professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida (USF). He obtained his academic degrees from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Ph.D., in 1991) and from the Institute of Experimental and Theoretical Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences (D.Sc., in 1998). He spent his early career working mostly on protein folding at the Institute of Protein Research and the Institute for Biological Instrumentation (Russia). In 1998, he moved to the University of California Santa Cruz where for six years he was studying protein folding, misfolding, protein conformation diseases