title: The why, when and how of lipid droplet diversity.
abstract: Lipid droplets are the universal cellular organelles for the transient or long-term storage of lipids. The number, size and composition of lipid droplets vary greatly within cells in a homogenous population as well as in different cell types. The variability of intracellular lipid-storage organelles reflects the diversification of lipid droplet composition and function. Lipid droplet diversification results, for example, in two cellular lipid droplet populations that are prone to diminish and grow, respectively. The aberrant accumulation or depletion of lipids are hallmarks or causes of various human pathologies. Thus, a better understanding of the origins of lipid droplet diversification is not only a fascinating cell biology question but also potentially serves to improve comprehension of pathologies that entail the accumulation of lipids. This Commentary covers the lipid droplet life cycle and highlights the early steps during lipid droplet biogenesis, which we propose to be the potential driving forces of lipid droplet diversification.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University; Université Paris Diderot Sorbonne Paris-Cité; Sorbonne Universités UPMC Univ Paris 06; CNRS; 24 rue Lhomond, Paris 75005, France thiam@lps.ens.fr mathias.beller@hhu.de.
authors.forename: Abdou Rachid
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Thiam
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems, Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany thiam@lps.ens.fr mathias.beller@hhu.de.|Systems Biology of Lipid Metabolism, Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstr. 1, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0987-0080
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D066292:Lipid Droplets / Q000378:metabolism*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological
keywords: Emulsion physics; Endoplasmic reticulum; Lipid droplets; Lipid metabolism; Organelle biogenesis; Organelle diversification