TABLE 1.

Proposed phase-separated biomolecular condensates in microbial cells.

Systems	Representative species	Biological processes	Functions	Molecular mechanisms	References
LLPS systems in eukaryotic microbes
P body	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Regulate gene transcription	Act against stresses	Defined modular domains (Modules), Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs)	Decker and Parker, 2012; Jain and Parker, 2013; Hubstenberger et al., 2017; Loll-Krippleber and Brown, 2017; Luo et al., 2018
Stress granules	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Regulate translation	Act against stresses	IDRs	Buchan et al., 2011; Kato et al., 2012; Jain et al., 2016; Khong et al., 2017
Large 1 (Lge1) protein	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Accelerate the ubiquitination of histone	Regulate metabolic flux	IDRs	Turco et al., 2015; Kim et al., 2018; Gallego et al., 2020
G body	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Enhance glycolysis	Act against stresses	IDRs	Jin et al., 2017; Fuller et al., 2020
Pyrenoid	Chlamydomonas reinhardtii	CO2 concentration	Regulate metabolic flux	IDRs	Mackinder et al., 2016; Freeman Rosenzweig et al., 2017; Wunder et al., 2018; He et al., 2020
Yeast ataxin-2 protein (Pbp1)	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Regulate cellular signaling and autophagy	Act against stresses	Modules	Kato et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019
DNA repair droplet	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	DNA repair	Act against stresses	IDRs	Lao et al., 2008; Oshidari et al., 2020
Membrane invagination	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Endocytosis	Act against stresses	IDRs	Bergeron-Sandoval et al., 2021; Lyon et al., 2021
Prion protein	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Regulate translation	Act against stresses	Modules, IDRs	Franzmann et al., 2018
Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1)	Schizosaccharomyces pombe	Chromatin compaction	Regulate metabolic flux	Modules	Canzio et al., 2013; Larson et al., 2017; Sanulli et al., 2019
TBP associated factor 14 (Taf14)	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Regulate gene transcription	Regulate metabolic flux	Modules	Schulze et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2020; Peil et al., 2020
Cajal body homologs	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Telomerase recruitment	Regulate metabolic flux	Modules	Verheggen et al., 2001; Mao et al., 2011
LLPS systems in prokaryotic microbes
Carboxysome	Synechococcus elongatus	CO2 concentration	Regulate metabolic flux	IDRs	Cameron et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2013; Sun et al., 2019; MacCready et al., 2020; Oltrogge et al., 2020
BR-bodies	Caulobacter crescentus	Regulate RNA metabolism	Act against stresses	IDRs	Hardwick et al., 2011; Al-Husini et al., 2018, 2020; Bayas et al., 2018
ParABS DNA segregation system	Escherichia coli	Regulate DNA segregation	Regulate metabolic flux	Modules	Sengupta et al., 2010; Graham et al., 2014; Sanchez et al., 2015; Debaugny et al., 2018; Guilhas et al., 2020
RNA polymerase clusters	Escherichia coli	Control transcription	Regulate metabolic flux	Modules, IDRs	Cabrera and Jin, 2003; Weng et al., 2019; Ladouceur et al., 2020
Pole-organizing protein (PopZ)	Caulobacter crescentus	Control spatial patterning	Regulate metabolic flux	IDRs	Dahlberg et al., 2020; Lasker et al., 2020
Single-stranded DNA-binding protein (SSB)	Escherichia coli	DNA replication, repair, and recombination	Act against stresses	Modules, IDRs, Crowded environments	Zhao et al., 2019; Harami et al., 2020
ATP-binding cassette transporter (Rv1747)	Mycobacterium tuberculosis	Cell growth	Regulate metabolic flux	IDRs	Spivey et al., 2011; Heinkel et al., 2019; Owen and Shewmaker, 2019
Filamentous temperature-sensitive protein Z (FtsZ) assembly	Escherichia coli	Cell division	Regulate metabolic flux	Crowded Environments	Monterroso et al., 2016, 2019
PolyP granules	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Starvation response and regulation of DNA replication	Act against stresses	Modules, IDRs, Crowded environments	Kreuzer, 2013; Racki et al., 2017
DNA-binding protein from starved cells (Dps)	Escherichia coli	Protect nucleoid from damage	Act against stresses	IDRs	Kim et al., 2004; Janissen et al., 2018