Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in the Presence of Macromolecular Crowding and State-dependent Kinetics.

ABSTRACT: Biomolecular condensates formed via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) are increasingly being shown to play major roles in cellular self-organization dynamics in health and disease. It is well established that macromolecular crowding has a profound impact on protein interactions, particularly those that lead to LLPS. Although synthetic crowding agents are used during in vitro LLPS experiments, they are considerably different from the highly crowded nucleo-/cytoplasm and the effects of in vivo crowding remain poorly understood. In this work, we applied computational modeling to investigate the effects of macromolecular crowding on LLPS. To include biologically relevant LLPS dynamics, we extended the conventional Cahn-Hilliard model for phase separation by coupling it to experimentally de

SUBMITTER: Vweza AO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8268629 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature