How protein droplets help bring membranes together

How it works

Just as a drop of water can spread over glass, a protein-rich droplet can spread across a membrane inside a cell. We study whether this property, called wetting, helps bring membranes together.

During mitophagy, damaged mitochondria are marked for removal. Proteins called OPTN and NDP52 then gather and form thin, fluid-like assemblies across the mitochondrial surface.

A 2024 study showed that keeping these assemblies fluid is important for attracting small ATG9-containing vesicles. Besides direct protein-to-protein connections, the ability of a droplet to spread over a surface may help bring membranes into contact.

What we want to learn next

We want to test whether this occurs at other organelle contact sites and determine the relative roles of droplet spreading and direct molecular links.

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