Cooperation and competition of basepairing and electrostatic interactions in mixtures of DNA nanostars and polylysine.

ABSTRACT: Phase separation in biomolecular mixtures can result from multiple physical interactions, which may act either complementarily or antagonistically. In the case of protein--nucleic acid mixtures, charge plays a key role but can have contrasting effects on phase behavior. Attractive electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged macromolecules are screened by added salt, reducing the driving force for coacervation. By contrast, base-pairing interactions between nucleic acids are diminished by charge repulsion and thus enhanced by added salt, promoting associative phase separation. To explore this interplay, we combine experiment and theory to map the complex phase behavior of a model solution of poly-L-lysine (PLL) and self-complementary DNA nanostars (NS) as a function of temperature

SUBMITTER: Abraham GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12310125 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature