Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 62: Complex Fluids and Soft Matter II (joint DY/CPP)
DY 62.10: Talk
Friday, March 24, 2017, 12:15–12:30, HÜL 186
Regulation of liquid phase separation of PGL-3 protein by RNA — •Omar Adame-Arana1, Christoph A. Weber1,2, Shambaditya Saha3, Anthony A. Hyman3, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 2Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA — 3Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Liquid-liquid phase separation has been proposed as a key mechanism for the assembly and maintenance of membraneless compartments in cells. For example, in the C. elegans embryo, liquid-like droplets called P granules, condense and subsequently segregate to one side of the cell prior to cell division. P granules play a key role in the specification of germ cell fate. It has been shown that PGL-3, a key P granule component, is able to form RNA-rich liquid droplets in vitro. We investigate the role of RNA to facilitate phase separation using a Flory-Huggins model. We show that competition for RNA binding by PGL-3 and the regulatory protein Mex-5 can acount for the observed droplet segregation.