Macromolecular crowding could help build artificial cell systems

Macromolecular crowding can serve as a design tool for controlling the formation and organization of synthetic DNA droplets, a study from Science Tokyo reveals. Researchers investigated this strategy using DNA nanostars and polymeric crowding agents to mimic the crowded cellular environment. They found that crowding promoted droplet formation and enabled control over droplet size, interactions and organization. The findings could support the development of programmable artificial cell systems.