PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Florian Oltsch
AU  - Adam Klosin
AU  - Frank Julicher
AU  - Anthony A. Hyman
AU  - Christoph Zechner
TI  - Phase separation provides a mechanism to reduce noise in cells
AID  - 10.1101/524231
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 524231
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/22/524231.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/22/524231.full
AB  - A central problem in cellular control is how cells cope with the inherent noise in gene expression. Although transcriptional and posttranscriptional feedback mechanisms can suppress noise, they are often slow, and cannot explain how cells buffer acute fluctuations. Here, by using a physical model that links fluctuations in protein concentration to the theory of phase separation, we show that liquid droplets can act as fast and effective buffers for gene expression noise. We confirm our theory experimentally using an engineered phase separating protein that forms liquid-like compartments in mammalian cells. These data suggest a novel role of phase separation in biological information processing.