C. elegans uses Liquid-Liquid Demixing for the Assembly of Non-Membrane-Bound Compartments

P granules are liquid cytoplasmic RNA/Protein condensates known to determine the germ lineage in Caenorhabditis elegans. They resemble striking similarities with liquid droplets, such as dripping, shearing and wetting. Assuming that P granules are liquid-like we consider how they form in the crowded cytoplasm. Using confocal and light-sheet microscopy, P granule formation in-vivo and in-vitro is shown to share all hallmarks with a liquid-liquid phase-separation. Specifically, demixing is determined by temperature and concentration, the droplet formation is reversible with respect to temperature quenches and there is evidence for droplet growth due to coalescence and Ostwald-ripening. Liquid-liquid demixing in-vivo breaks the paradigmatic view that a molecular machinery is necessary to build up organelles through complex biological pathways. Instead we propose that P granules form following a Flory-Huggins model. Liquid-liquid demixing could also serve as a mechanism for the assembly of non-membrane-bound compartments in other living organisms.