title: Intrinsically disordered proteins as crucial constituents of cellular aqueous two phase systems and coacervates.
abstract: Here, we hypothesize that intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) serve as important drivers of the intracellular liquid-liquid phase separations that generate various membrane-less organelles. This hypothesis is supported by the overwhelming abundance of IDPs in these organelles. Assembly and disassembly of these organelles are controlled by changes in the concentrations of IDPs, their posttranslational modifications, binding of specific partners, and changes in the pH and/or temperature of the solution. Each resulting phase provides a distinct solvent environment for other solutes leading to their unequal distribution within phases. The specificity and efficiency of such partitioning is determined by the nature of the IDP(s) and defines "targeted" enrichment of specific molecules in the resulting membrane-less organelles that determines their specific activities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine and USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Research Institute, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA; Institute for Biological Instrumentation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russian Federation; Biology Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia; Laboratory of Structural Dynamics, Stability and Folding of Proteins, Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. Electronic address: vuversky@health.usf.edu.
authors.forename: Vladimir N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Uversky
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Structural Dynamics, Stability and Folding of Proteins, Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Irina M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Kuznetsova
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Structural Dynamics, Stability and Folding of Proteins, Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Konstantin K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Turoverov
authors.affiliation: AnalizaDx Inc., 3615 Superior Ave., Suite 4407B, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zaslavsky
mesh_terms: D001678:Organelle Biogenesis; D015388:Organelles / Q000502:physiology*; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000502:physiology*; D011506:Proteins / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins
keywords: Aqueous two-phase system; Coacervate; Intrinsically disordered proteins; Liquid–liquid phase transition; Membrane-less organelles; Partitioning