Open AccessMultiphase organization is a second phase transition within multi-component biomolecular condensates
Author(s) -
Konstantinos Mazarakos,
HuanXiang Zhou
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of chemical physics online/the journal of chemical physics/journal of chemical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 357
eISSN - 1089-7690
pISSN - 0021-9606
DOI - 10.1063/5.0088004
Subject(s) - component (thermodynamics) , chemical physics , phase transition , phase (matter) , molecular dynamics , materials science , statistical physics , attraction , field (mathematics) , thermodynamics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , linguistics , philosophy
We present a mean-field theoretical model, along with molecular dynamics simulations, to show that the multiphase organization of multi-component condensates is a second phase transition. Whereas the first phase transition that leads to the separation of condensates from the bulk phase is driven by overall attraction among the macromolecular components, the second phase transition can be driven by the disparity in strength between self and cross-species attraction. At a fixed level of disparity in interaction strengths, both of the phase transitions can be observed by decreasing temperature, leading first to the separation of condensates from the bulk phase and then to component demixing inside condensates. The existence of a critical temperature for demixing and predicted binodals are verified by molecular dynamics simulations of model mixtures.