Temperature-Controlled Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Disordered Proteins

Phase Separation and Single-Chain Compactness of Charged Disordered Proteins Are Strongly Correlated.

Liquid-liquid phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is a major undergirding factor in the regulated formation of membraneless organelles in the cell. The phase behavior of an IDP is sensitive to its amino acid sequence. Here we apply a recent random-phase-approximation polymer theory to investigate how the tendency for multiple chains of a protein to phase-separate, as ch...

Intrinsically disordered linkers determine the interplay between phase separation and gelation in multivalent proteins

Phase transitions of linear multivalent proteins control the reversible formation of many intracellular membraneless bodies. Specific non-covalent crosslinks involving domains/motifs lead to system-spanning networks referred to as gels. Gelation transitions can occur with or without phase separation. In gelation driven by phase separation multivalent proteins and their ligands condense into den...

Random-phase-approximation theory for sequence-dependent, biologically functional liquid-liquid phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are typically low in nonpolar/hydrophobic but relatively high in polar, charged, and aromatic amino acid compositions. Some IDPs undergo liquid-liquid phase separation in the aqueous milieu of the living cell. The resulting phase with enhanced IDP concentration can function as a major component of membraneless organelles that, by creating their own IDP-r...

Pressure–Temperature Phase Diagrams of Proteins

Relating gas phase to solution conformations: Lessons from disordered proteins

In recent years both mass spectrometry (MS) and ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) have been developed as techniques with which to study proteins that lack a fixed tertiary structure but may contain regions that form secondary structure elements transiently, namely intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). IM-MS is a suitable method for the study of IDPs which provides an insight to conform...