Regensburg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 8: Focus Session: Phase Separation in Biochemical Systems
BP 8.5: Vortrag
Dienstag, 6. September 2022, 10:45–11:00, H15
Droplet differentiation induced by chemical reactions — •Xi Chen1, Frank Jülicher2, Jens-Uwe Sommer1, and Tyler Harmon1 — 1Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden, Institut Theory der Polymere, 01069 Dresden — 2Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden
Membraneless compartments are formed in cells by liquid-liquid phase separation. The compartments enrich many components including enzymes which resemble chemically active droplets. A major paradigm for studying these droplets is to consider two types of species, scaffolds, which thermodynamically hold the droplets together, and clients, such as enzymes which utilize the droplets that are formed. We investigate through theory a model system where two competing enzymes which can modify the scaffold, for example a kinase and a phosphatase, are clients to the droplets. Interestingly, by introducing a preferential affinity between enzymes and their product scaffold, the system becomes unstable and differentiates into two types of droplets concentrated in either modified scaffold. Additionally, these features can lead to unexpected behaviors such as droplets which repel each other. This may correspond to an unexplored mechanism of the spatial control of biochemical reactions in biological cells.