2022/12/12 by Ruoyao Zhang, Zhang, Ruoyao, Sheng Mao +3
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction #Proteins in Food Systems #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC) #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2212.06217
openalex publication_date 2022/12/12 · openalex created_date 2022/12/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Mixtures of several macromolecular species can lead to the formation of higher-order structures that often display non-ideal mixing behavior. In this work, we propose a minimal model of a quaternary system which considers the formation of a complex via a chemical reaction involving two macromolecular species; the complex may then phase separate from the buffer and undergo a further transition into a gel-like state over time. First, a ternary phase diagram that captures the volume fraction of each species and phases at equilibrium is constructed. Specifically, we investigate how physical parameters such as stoichiometric coefficients, molecular sizes and interaction parameters affect LLPS and aging. Finally, we analyze the thermodynamic stability of the two-phase system and identify the spinodal regions, and outline the generalization of our approach to reactive biomolecular systems with an arbitrary number of components.