Probing the influence of mutations on FUS condensates, one molecule at a time

Protein aggregation and phase separation appear to play important roles in diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD), but the interplay between different participating molecular events-which may facilitate or inhibit one another-can be difficult to study by conventional ensemble methods. In a recent study, Kevin Rhine and co-workers make use of point mutations to demonstrate the contrasting behaviour of condensates arising from Glycine and Arginine FUS mutants using single molecules fluorescence measurements.