相变
成核
化学物理
肌动蛋白
化学
高分子
生物物理学
磷酸化
纳米技术
生物
材料科学
物理
生物化学
凝聚态物理
有机化学
作者
Pilong Li,Sudeep Banjade,Hui Chun Cheng,Soyeon Kim,Baoyu Chen,Liang Guo,Marc C. Llaguno,Javoris Hollingsworth,David S. King,Salman F. Banani,Paul S. Russo,Qiu Xing Jiang,B. Tracy Nixon,Michael K. Rosen
出处
期刊:Nature
[Springer Nature]
日期:2012-03-01
卷期号:483 (7389): 336-340
被引量:1996
摘要
Cells are organized on length scales ranging from ångström to micrometres. However, the mechanisms by which ångström-scale molecular properties are translated to micrometre-scale macroscopic properties are not well understood. Here we show that interactions between diverse synthetic, multivalent macromolecules (including multi-domain proteins and RNA) produce sharp liquid-liquid-demixing phase separations, generating micrometre-sized liquid droplets in aqueous solution. This macroscopic transition corresponds to a molecular transition between small complexes and large, dynamic supramolecular polymers. The concentrations needed for phase transition are directly related to the valency of the interacting species. In the case of the actin-regulatory protein called neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (N-WASP) interacting with its established biological partners NCK and phosphorylated nephrin, the phase transition corresponds to a sharp increase in activity towards an actin nucleation factor, the Arp2/3 complex. The transition is governed by the degree of phosphorylation of nephrin, explaining how this property of the system can be controlled to regulatory effect by kinases. The widespread occurrence of multivalent systems suggests that phase transitions may be used to spatially organize and biochemically regulate information throughout biology.
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