Evidence accumulated over the past decade provides support for liquid-liquid phase separation as the mechanism underlying the formation of biomolecular condensates, which include not only 'membraneless' organelles such as nucleoli and RNA granules, but additional assemblies involved in transcription, translation and signaling. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of condensate function requires knowledge of the structures of their constituents. Current knowledge suggests that structures formed via multivalent domain-motif interactions remain largely unchanged within condensates. Two different viewpoints exist regarding structures of disordered low-complexity domains within condensates; one argues that low-complexity domains remain largely disordered in condensates and their multivalency is encoded in short motifs called 'stickers', while the other argues that the sequences form cross-β structures resembling amyloid fibrils. We review these viewpoints and highlight outstanding questions that will inform structure-function relationships for biomolecular condensates.

中文翻译：

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生物分子缩合物中的分子结构。

过去十年中积累的证据为液-液相分离提供了支持，这是生物分子缩合物形成的基础机制，不仅包括“无膜”细胞器（如核仁和RNA颗粒），还包括参与转录，翻译和信号转导的其他装配。了解冷凝功能的分子机制需要了解其组成的结构。当前的知识表明，通过多价域基序相互作用形成的结构在冷凝物中基本保持不变。对于凝析物中无序的低复杂度域的结构，存在两种不同的观点。有人认为，低复杂度域在冷凝物中仍然无序，它们的多价编码在称为“贴纸”的短基序中 ，而另一位则认为该序列形成类似于淀粉样蛋白原纤维的交叉β结构。我们回顾了这些观点，并突出了突出的问题，这些问题将告知生物分子缩合物的结构-功能关系。