Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Peptide/Oligonucleotide Complexes in Crowded Macromolecular Media. 2021

Qingwen Bai, and Qiufen Zhang, and Hairong Jing, and Jiaxin Chen, and Dehai Liang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering and the Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.

The membraneless organelles (MLOs) and coacervates of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes are both formed by liquid-liquid phase separation. To reveal how the crowded cell interior regulates the MLOs, we chose the coacervates formed by peptide S5 and single-stranded oligonucleotide (ss-oligo) at 1:1 charge ratio and investigated the phase separation processes in polyacrylamide (PAM) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) media at varying concentrations. Results show that the droplet formation unit is the neutral primary complex, instead of individual S5 or ss-oligo. Therefore, the coacervation process can be described by the classic theory of nucleation and growth. The dynamic scaling relationships show that S5/ss-oligo coacervation undergoes in sequence the heterogeneous nucleation, diffusion-limited growth, and Brownian motion coalescence with time. The inert crowders generate multiple effects, including accelerating the growth of droplets, weakening the electrostatic attraction, and slowing down or even trapping the droplets in the crowder network. The overall effect is that both the size and size distribution of the droplets decrease with increasing crowder concentration, and the effect of PEO is stronger than that of PAM. Our study provides a further step toward a deeper understanding of the kinetics of MLOs in crowded living cells.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007700 Kinetics The rate dynamics in chemical or physical systems.
D009841 Oligonucleotides Polymers made up of a few (2-20) nucleotides. In molecular genetics, they refer to a short sequence synthesized to match a region where a mutation is known to occur, and then used as a probe (OLIGONUCLEOTIDE PROBES). (Dorland, 28th ed) Oligonucleotide
D010455 Peptides Members of the class of compounds composed of AMINO ACIDS joined together by peptide bonds between adjacent amino acids into linear, branched or cyclical structures. OLIGOPEPTIDES are composed of approximately 2-12 amino acids. Polypeptides are composed of approximately 13 or more amino acids. PROTEINS are considered to be larger versions of peptides that can form into complex structures such as ENZYMES and RECEPTORS. Peptide,Polypeptide,Polypeptides
D000071228 Polyelectrolytes Naturally occurring or artificially made water-soluble POLYMERS whose repeating units are ionizable. Polyelectrolytes demonstrate attributes that are typical of salts, such as electrical conductivity, and typical of polymers, such as viscosity. Conjugated Polyelectrolyte,Polyelectrolyte,Conjugated Polyelectrolytes,Polyelectrolyte, Conjugated,Polyelectrolytes, Conjugated
D046911 Macromolecular Substances Compounds and molecular complexes that consist of very large numbers of atoms and are generally over 500 kDa in size. In biological systems macromolecular substances usually can be visualized using ELECTRON MICROSCOPY and are distinguished from ORGANELLES by the lack of a membrane structure. Macromolecular Complexes,Macromolecular Compounds,Macromolecular Compounds and Complexes,Complexes, Macromolecular,Compounds, Macromolecular,Substances, Macromolecular

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