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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 26: Synthetic life-like systems and Origins of Life
BP 26.8: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 20. März 2025, 11:45–12:00, H46
Gravitationally induced oscillations of active droplets — •Advait Thatte1, Judit Sastre2, Alexander Bergmann2, Michele Stasi2, Marta Tena-Solsona2, Job Boekhoven2, and Christoph Weber1 — 1Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Materials Engineering, and Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, 86159 Augsburg, Germany — 2Department of Bioscience, School of Natural Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstrasse 4, 85748 Garching, Germany
Oscillations in the formation and dissolution of compartments inside living cells are pivotal in orchestrating various cellular functions and processes. Recent experiments on synthetic cells showed the spontaneous emergence of spatio-temporal oscillations in the number of droplets, their size, and position. Oscillations occur because droplets grow via gravitationally induced fusion above their stationary size. As a result droplets shrink, feeding the nucleation of new sedimenting droplets, restarting the cycle. The stationary droplet size is a consequence of deactivating droplet material inside and activating outside. Here we present a theoretical model for phase separation with non equilibrium chemical fuelling including a sharp interface model for many active droplets. The model quantitatively describes the stationary droplet size and the oscillation frequency observed experimentally.
Keywords: Phase separation; Droplets; Non equilibrium; synthetic cells