Evolved interactions stabilize many coexisting phases in multicomponent liquids.

ABSTRACT: Phase separation has emerged as an essential concept for the spatial organization inside biological cells. However, despite the clear relevance to virtually all physiological functions, we understand surprisingly little about what phases form in a system of many interacting components, like in cells. Here we introduce a numerical method based on physical relaxation dynamics to study the coexisting phases in such systems. We use our approach to optimize interactions between components, similar to how evolution might have optimized the interactions of proteins. These evolved interactions robustly lead to a defined number of phases, despite substantial uncertainties in the initial composition, while random or designed interactions perform much worse. Moreover, the optimized interactions are r

SUBMITTER: Zwicker D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9282444 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature