“Vacuole membranes of hungry yeast are tiny, living, phase-separating thermostats”

Hosted by the Department of Biomedical Engineering

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Abstract: Liquid-liquid phase separation in living biological membranes is usually described as occurring on sub-micron length scales. A stunning counterexample occurs in S. cerevisiae. When the yeast shift from the log stage of growth to the stationary stage, huge, micron-scale liquid domains appear in the membranes of the vacuole, an endosomal organelle. These phases are functionally important, enabling yeast survival during periods of stress. This talk will review recent results showing: (1) This miscibility transition is reversible as would be expected from equilibrium thermodynamics, even though it occurs in a living system. (2) Yeast actively regulate this phase transition to hold the membrane transition ~15C above the yeast growth temperature. (3) In cases when domains appear as stripes, there is no current theory that explains all physical observables of the system. This research was conducted in collaboration with the labs of Alex Merz (University of Washington) and Robert Ernst (Universität des Saarlandes).

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