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Progress in Chemistry 2023, Vol. 35 Issue (10): 1486-1491 DOI: 10.7536/PC230222 Previous Articles   Next Articles

• Review •

Research Methods for Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Biological Macromolecules

Chubin Zhao1,2, Hailin Wang1,2,*()   

  1. 1 Hangzhou Institute for Advance Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Hangzhou 310024, China
    2 Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100085, China
  • Received: Revised: Online: Published:
  • Contact: *e-mail: hlwang@rcees.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(21927807); National Natural Science Foundation of China(22021003)
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The liquid-liquid phase separation of biological macromolecules is widely observed in various biological systems, and has become an emerging research focus of life science in recent years. Biological macromolecules are continuously enriched through multivalent interaction. When the molecular concentration reaches the dissolution threshold in solution, they will be precipitated from solution in the form of liquid-liquid phase separation. It is closely related to many important biological processes in cells (such as the formation of membraneless organelles). With the deepening of research on phase separation, its research methods are also developing and improving. Based on the principle and characteristics of phase separation, this paper introduces some commonly used research methods of phase separation. It provides the method basis for the subsequent phase separation research and promotes the further development of phase separation techniques and methods.

Contents

1 Principle and characteristics of liquid-liquid separation

2 Imaging technique for liquid-liquid phase separation

2.1 Optical microimaging

2.2 Single-molecule fluorescence imaging

2.3 Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

3 Theoretical prediction for liquid-liquid separation

3.1 Phase separation prediction and modeling

3.2 Databases of phase separation related proteins

4 Conclusion and outlook

Key words: liquid-liquid phase separation, optical microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, molecular simulation
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