L. J. Holt

Macromolecular interactions and geometrical confinement determine the 3D diffusion of ribosome-sized particles in live Escherichia coli cells

This study tracks ribosome-sized particles in E. coli to show that their 3D diffusion is influenced by macromolecular interactions and geometrical confinement, revealing sub-diffusive motion due to nucleoid and cell boundary constraints.

Mesoscale molecular assembly is favored by the active, crowded cytoplasm

The paper studies how the cytoplasm's crowded and active environment influences biomolecular condensate formation using a synthetic system and simulations.

GEMspa: a Napari plugin for analysis of single particle tracking data

GEMspa is a Napari plugin that simplifies single particle tracking analysis for microrheology, providing a user-friendly interface and tools for extracting particle motion parameters.

mRNA condensation fluidizes the cytoplasm

The paper shows that stress-induced mRNA condensation increases mesoscale diffusivity in the cytoplasm, fluidizing it and aiding in the formation of Q-bodies.

Increased mesoscale diffusivity in response to acute glucose starvation

The paper examines how acute glucose starvation affects the diffusivity of macromolecules and fluorescent nanoparticles, finding reduced mRNP diffusivity and increased NS particle diffusivity.

Tissue confinement regulates cell growth and size in epithelia

This study shows that tissue confinement in epithelia uncouples cell growth from division, leading to reduced cell size and a minimum volume set by genome size.

Condensation of LINE-1 is required for retrotransposition

This study shows that ORF1p condensation is essential for L1 retrotransposition, with dynamic assembly properties enabling efficient retrotransposon activity.

nucGEMs probe the biophysical properties of the nucleoplasm

The paper introduces nucGEMs, fluorescent nanoparticles that probe nucleoplasm biophysical properties, revealing differences in motility, exclusion from heterochromatin, and effects of mitotic condensation.

Macromolecular crowding limits growth under pressure

The paper shows that growth-induced pressure in confined cells increases macromolecular crowding, which hinders protein expression and reduces growth, without requiring specific molecular sensors.

The environmental stress response regulates ribosome content in cell cycle-arrested S. cerevisiae

This study shows that cell cycle arrest in S. cerevisiae triggers ribosome downregulation via the Environmental Stress Response (ESR), linking cell cycle progression to biomass accumulation.

Physical properties of the cytoplasm modulate the rates of microtubule polymerization and depolymerization

This study shows that cytoplasmic viscosity affects microtubule polymerization and depolymerization rates in fission yeast, moss, and mammalian cells.

3D neural network-based particle tracking reveals spatial heterogeneity of the cytosol

The paper develops a 3D neural network-based pipeline to track cytosolic nanoparticles in fungi, revealing spatial heterogeneity in diffusivity within and between cells.

mTORC1 controls phase-separation and the biophysical properties of the cytoplasm by tuning crowding

The paper investigates how mTORC1 regulates macromolecular crowding and biophysical properties of the cytoplasm by using GEMs to measure diffusion and phase-separation changes.