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The process of phase separation allows for the establishment and formation of subcompartmentalized structures, thus enabling cells to perform simultaneous processes with precise organization and low energy requirements. Chemical modifications of proteins, RNA, and lipids alter the molecular environment facilitating enzymatic reactions at higher concentrations in particular regions of the cell.
The process of LLPS is an entropy-driven event and, therefore, described by the thermodynamic law of free energy state [18][19]. Entropy-driven events are defined as spontaneous processes taking place without consuming energy. As stated by the second law of thermodynamics, spontaneous reactions occurring inside the cell take place by lowering the free energy state in pressure and temperature constants. The formation of liquid-like droplets is a passive process that involves weak intra- and inter-molecular interactions between RNA, proteins, and lipids within a dynamic scaffold [2][3][20][21][22]. LLPS-assembled biocondensates typically display an almost spherical shape, propensity for fusion and/or fission, and a high degree of internal molecule dynamics [23][24]. Moreover, LLPS is required for processes related to rRNA transcription [11], mRNA metabolism [25], posttranslational modifications (PTM) of proteins, and signaling. For example, nucleolar structure formation by coalescence assembly involves two major driving forces: a passive thermodynamically-dependent process and an active energy-consuming process [26][27]. The two specific features of the droplet formation model by coalescence are temperature-dependence and reversibility. LLPS is a spontaneous mechanism that builds up the nucleolar region and possibly mediates the functional formation of a nucleolus by spinodal decomposition primarily in the free Gibbs energy. The process of spinodal decomposition involves a thermodynamically unstable solution that can transform within a miscibility gap to a mixture of two phases, since it occurs in a thermodynamically unstable state. The spinodal region of the phase diagram for each compound is where the free energy can be lowered by allowing the components to separate. Therefore, this results in an increased relative concentration of a component material (RNA, protein, or lipid) in a particular region of the cell. The concentration will continue to increase, thus, forming a particular structure (nucleoli, Cajal body, etc.). Once nucleation begins, a structure increases in size. To maintain the dynamics of the molecular characteristics of proteins, RNA and lipids must change by chemical modifications. Phosphorylation and methylation are some of the most common chemical alterations of these three types of molecules.
Very large regions of material will change their concentration slowly due to the amount of material that must move following passive processes, from high to low gradient concentration, isoelectric point, and electrostatic gradients. Very small regions composed of just a few molecules will shrink away due to the energy cost in entropy to maintain an interface between two dissimilar component materials [28][29][30]. It does not require nucleation events to form as the phases evolve continuously, thus, creating a separation of molecules without the aid of chemical energy. However, it is interesting to note that not only does LLPS mediate the formation of the nucleolus, but energy-consuming processes are also involved. Therefore, the enzymatic process is the second force that contributes to the formation of a functional nucleolus [17]. LLPS is dependent on the multivalent crosslinking interactions of molecules, such as RNA and proteins, that possess unstructured metastable regions or intrinsically disordered regions (IDR) [8][31]. These structural features give rise to typical properties of membraneless biocondensates, such as viscoelasticity and the fusion dependent on temperature [28][29][30]. Defining the energy required in the unmixing binary or ternary mixtures is not the only phase occurrence where energy-free growth occurs. Consider an example of two independent protein–lipid complexes, which undergo a particular order structure in thermal equilibrium. The phase transition forms a disordered state, where the two molecule species A and B are randomly distributed in the nucleolus forming an ordered arrangement depending on their concentration, thus creating a particular phase as described earlier by theoretical spinodal order, [32]. Phase separation of proteins that interact with nuclear lipids appear to form a pattern structure where each molecule occupies a defined position; therefore, the diffusion would follow a similar pattern as a spinodal decomposition.
However, nucleation also plays a role, under different concentrations for some of the compounds. In addition to the complexity of the mixture of materials, we have to consider the additional complexity of molecule modification by phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, etc. [33]. All this alteration may allow a particular molecule to change its physicochemical characteristics, and since it would be at a different concentration, it may change position as it moves from a spinodal to a binodal or outside the range of phase separation. Thus, a molecule can transit from a particular structure to another without the addition of chemical energy. Figure 1 shows the miscibility gap where the initial free energy G would allow for a particular molecule of C1 concentration to phase separate from solution. The unstable zone where the spinodal decomposition lies is where the tangent of the curve from the Gibbs free energy changes so that the ∂2G/∂ Φ 2 = 0. Therefore, molecules can phase separate freely in this region and form particular structures without additional energy. In the cell nucleus, there is an added complexity of molecules, such as RNA, that may form nucleation events that can influence the range of concentrations for phase separation. Moreover, some of the molecules may have “fixed” positions due to interactions with specific DNA sequences. Nucleation requires additional energy, as stated in ∂2∆G/∂ φ 2 > 0. This may range from lncRNA to DNA binding proteins to set the particular locations for nucleation to take place. LncRNA may provide an additional dynamic situation. Previous studies have shown that RNA can alter the concentration required for phase separation for particular proteins [34][35]. Furthermore, the addition of RNA inhibitors, such as actinomycin D or DRB, result in nucleolar alteration and form different phase separations, forming the well-known nucleolar CAP [36][37]. Therefore, the range of concentrations in which a molecule can freely form a particular phase may be wider in the presence of RNA than if the compounds were taken in an in vitro scenario. These dynamics may prove relevant for nuclear organization, in particular, during the cell cycle as well as during temperature stress, where particular proteins, such as fibrillarin, that participate in the nucleolar process may redistribute to the cytoplasm [38].