RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Phase separation provides a mechanism to reduce noise in cells
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 524231
DO 10.1101/524231
A1 Florian Oltsch
A1 Adam Klosin
A1 Frank Julicher
A1 Anthony A. Hyman
A1 Christoph Zechner
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/22/524231.abstract
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.