Heterogeneous elasticity drives ripening and controls bursting kinetics of transcriptional condensates.

ABSTRACT: Many biomolecular condensates, including transcriptional condensates, are formed in elastic mediums. In this work, we study the nonequilibrium condensate dynamics in a chromatin-like environment modeled as a heterogeneous elastic medium. We demonstrate that the ripening process in such an elastic medium exhibits a temporal power-law scaling of the average condensate radius, depending on the local stiffness distribution and different from Ostwald ripening. Moreover, we incorporate an active process to model the dissolution of transcriptional condensates upon RNA accumulation. Intriguingly, three types of kinetics of condensate growth emerge, corresponding to constitutively expressed, transcriptional-bursting, and silenced genes. Furthermore, the simulated burst frequency decreases exponenti

SUBMITTER: Meng L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10962985 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature