Log in

Cell mimicry

How to drink like a liposome

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Chemistry

View current issue Sign up to alerts

The interactions of lipid bilayer cell membranes with liquid biomolecular condensates are key to many biological processes, including endocytosis. New research shows a model system of liposomes that are able to engulf droplets, effectively mimicking endocytosis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Germany)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: Liposomes engulfing droplets.

References

  1. Banani, S. F., Lee, H. O., Hyman, A. A. & Rosen, M. K. Biomolecular condensates: organizers of cellular biochemistry. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 18, 285–298 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wheeler, R. J. & Hyman, A. A. Controlling compartmentalization by non-membrane-bound organelles. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 373, 20170193 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Su, X. et al. Phase separation of signaling molecules promotes T cell receptor signal transduction. Science 352, 595–599 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Agudo-Canalejo, J. et al. Wetting regulates autophagy of phase-separated compartments and the cytosol. Nature 591, 142–146 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Deshpande, S. et al. Spatiotemporal control of coacervate formation within liposomes. Nat. Commun. 10, 1800 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lu, T. et al. Endocytosis of coacervates into liposomes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 144, 13451–13455 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kusumaatmaja, H. & Lipowsky, R. Droplet-induced budding transitions of membranes. Soft Matter 7, 6914–6919 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Liu, J., Zhorabek, F., Dai, X., Huang, J. & Chau, Y. Minimalist design of an intrinsically disordered protein-mimicking scaffold for an artificial membraneless organelle. ACS Cent. Sci. 8, 493–500 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu, J. et al. Multifaceted cargo recruitment and release from artificial membraneless organelles. Small 18, 2201721 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Szostak, J. W., Bartel, D. P. & Luisi, P. L. Synthesizing life. Nature 409, 387–390 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianhui Liu or Ben Zhong Tang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, J., Tang, B.Z. How to drink like a liposome. Nat Rev Chem 7, 5–6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00452-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00452-z

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation