The material properties of a bacterial-derived biomolecular condensate tune biological function in natural and synthetic systems
- PMID: 36163138
- PMCID: PMC9512792
- DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33221-z
The material properties of a bacterial-derived biomolecular condensate tune biological function in natural and synthetic systems
Abstract
Intracellular phase separation is emerging as a universal principle for organizing biochemical reactions in time and space. It remains incompletely resolved how biological function is encoded in these assemblies and whether this depends on their material state. The conserved intrinsically disordered protein PopZ forms condensates at the poles of the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, which in turn orchestrate cell-cycle regulating signaling cascades. Here we show that the material properties of these condensates are determined by a balance between attractive and repulsive forces mediated by a helical oligomerization domain and an expanded disordered region, respectively. A series of PopZ mutants disrupting this balance results in condensates that span the material properties spectrum, from liquid to solid. A narrow range of condensate material properties supports proper cell division, linking emergent properties to organismal fitness. We use these insights to repurpose PopZ as a modular platform for generating tunable synthetic condensates in human cells.
© 2022. The Author(s).
Conflict of interest statement
A.S.H. is a scientific consultant with Dewpoint Therapeutics. A.D.G. has served as a consultant for Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals, Prevail Therapeutics and Third Rock Ventures and is a scientific founder of Maze Therapeutics. L.S. is on the Board of Directors of Pacific Biosciences, Inc and 5Metis, Inc. Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Inc. and The Board Of Trustees Of The Leland Stanford Junior University filed a patent application that describes the PopTag technology, parts of which are introduced and described in this work, on behalf of inventors K.L., S.B, A.D.G, and L.S. (PCT/ WO2021113598A3). V.L, D.S., E.S., A.B., M.J., D.D., A.D., and E.V. declare no competing interests.
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