Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 17: Focus: Droplets (joint session DY/CPP)

DY 17.12: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2018, 18:30–18:45, BH-N 334

Role of hydrodynamics in chemically driven droplet division — •Rabea Seyboldt and Frank Jülicher — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany

Macromolecular phase separation and droplet formation have long been proposed as key elements in the formation of protocells during the origin of life. A simple model of a protocell consists of a droplet, where droplet material is produced outside the droplet, and chemical reactions inside the droplet play the role of a simple metabolism. Our previous theoretical study showed that such chemically active droplets can have a flux-driven shape instability that leads to a symmetric droplet division. Here we study the role of hydrodynamic flows on the chemically driven droplet division. In the deformed droplet, gradients of Laplace pressure create the hydrodynamic flows that have a tendency to relax the droplet to a spherical shape. We find that despite these stabilizing flows, droplet division can still occur. We analyze the dependence of the instability on the droplet viscosity and parameters that characterize the metabolism and material production. A comparison with protein/RNA droplets suggests that the droplet division could be observable in experimental systems. This highlights the possibility that chemically driven shape instabilities could play a role for the organization of membrane-less organelles in biological cells. Additionally, our work provides a physical mechanism for the division of early protocells before the appearance of membranes.