Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Biomaterials and Biopolymers (joint session BP/CPP)

BP 18.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 10:30–10:45, H 1028

Connecting protein architecture to their emergent droplet properties — •Zhouyi He, Jens-Uwe Sommer, and Tyler Harmon — Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung, Institut Theorie der Polymer, 01069, Dresden, Germany

Spatial organization is a fundamental characteristic of biological systems. Biomolecular condensates (droplets) is one class of spatial organization. Understanding how these droplets arise from molecular interactions remains a complex challenge. To address this, we focused on a specific model system consisting of two multivalent proteins with folded domains and disordered linkers which co-phase separate into droplets. We employed coarse-grained simulations to investigate how structural modularity impacts the phase diagram and material properties of these droplets. Our study focuses on the material properties: density, viscosity, and network architecture. The introduction of a coiled-coil domain substantially alters the phase behavior and material properties of the resulting droplets. The stiffness of this domain plays an important role in preventing self-loop closure and thus promoting phase separation, which enables a certain degree of orthogonal design across the various material properties we explored. Our research yields insights into the phase behavior of biomolecular condensates and provides guidelines for the modulation of droplet material properties.

Keywords: Liquid-liquid phase separation; Biomolecular condensates; Biopolymer; Protein network; Coarse-grained modeling