Berlin 2018 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 20: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems DY (joint session DY/BP)
BP 20.8: Talk
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 12:00–12:15, BH-N 333
A minimal model to study pH-dependent phase separation — •Omar Adame-Arana1, Christoph A. Weber1,2, Vasily Zaburdaev1, Jacques Prost3, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 2Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall 412, 28 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138, USA — 3Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France
Liquid phase separation is ubiquitous in nature. There is an increasing interest in studying the role of the formation of liquid like droplets as an organizer of the cell cytoplasm. pH influences the charge state of macromolecules such as proteins and can therefore affect phase separation. We propose a minimal model to study how pH can influence the phase separation of a solution composed of macroions of different charge states. We couple a phase separating system to chemical reactions associated with pH. Using this model we first construct the corresponding phase diagrams at the isoelectric point and study the effects of different interaction parameters on the phase diagrams. We then study the effects of changes of pH on phase diagrams. We find that phase separation is most pronounced near the isoelectric point.