Journal
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
Volume 152, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.5139661
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Funding
- Canadian Insitutes of Health [PJT-155930]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2018-04351]
- National Institutes of Health [1R15GM128162-01A1]
- National Science Foundation [MCB 1516959]
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The physical chemistry of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of polymer solutions bears directly on the assembly of biologically functional droplet-like bodies from proteins and nucleic acids. These biomolecular condensates include certain extracellular materials and intracellular compartments that are characterized as membraneless organelles. Analytical theories are a valuable, computationally efficient tool for addressing general principles. LLPS of neutral homopolymers is quite well described by theory, but it has been a challenge to develop general theories for the LLPS of heteropolymers involving charge-charge interactions. Here, we present a theory that combines a random-phase-approximation treatment of polymer density fluctuations and an account of intrachain conformational heterogeneity based on renormalized Kuhn lengths to provide predictions of LLPS properties as a function of pH, salt, and charge patterning along the chain sequence. Advancing beyond more limited analytical approaches, our LLPS theory is applicable to a wide variety of charged sequences ranging from highly charged polyelectrolytes to neutral or nearly neutral polyampholytes. This theory should be useful in high-throughput screening of protein and other sequences for their LLPS propensities and can serve as a basis for more comprehensive theories that incorporate nonelectrostatic interactions. Experimental ramifications of our theory are discussed. Published under license by AIP Publishing.
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