A scale-invariant log-normal droplet size distribution below the critical concentration for protein phase separation.

ABSTRACT: Many proteins have been recently shown to undergo a process of phase separation that leads to the formation of biomolecular condensates. Intriguingly, it has been observed that some of these proteins form dense droplets of sizeable dimensions already below the critical concentration, which is the concentration at which phase separation occurs. To understand this phenomenon, which is not readily compatible with classical nucleation theory, we investigated the properties of the droplet size distributions as a function of protein concentration. We found that these distributions can be described by a scale-invariant log-normal function with an average that increases progressively as the concentration approaches the critical concentration from below. The results of this scaling analysis suggest

SUBMITTER: Amico T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11573347 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature