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Evaluation of Cooling‐Induced Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Ureido Polymers as a Cold‐Shock Stress Granules Model
Author(s) -
Komachi Takuya,
Maruyama Atsushi,
Shimada Naohiko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.202000345
Subject(s) - coacervate , chemistry , polymer , membrane , biomolecule , phase (matter) , biophysics , chromatography , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , biology
Many intracellular reactions occur in membrane‐less organelles that form due to liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). Cold‐shock stress granules, which are membrane‐less organelles, are formed in response to a significant decrease in temperature and recruit biomolecules for regulation of their activities. The authors have reported that synthetic ureido copolymers exhibit cooling‐induced LLPS under physiologically relevant conditions. In this study, influences of the cooling‐induced LLPS of ureido polymers on enzymatic activity is investigated to evaluate whether the ureido polymers can mimic cold‐shock stress granules. The enzyme β‐galactosidase (β‐Gal) is efficiently entrapped into phase‐separated coacervates of ureido polymers upon cooling. The activity of β‐Gal is significantly suppressed by the entrapment. The enzymatic activity is recovered after heating, which dissolves the coacervate. Thus, the LLPS formed by ureido polymers are a suitable model for cold‐shock stress granules.