Cold cataracts: a naturally occurring aqueous two-phase system

Petitt, Paul; Forciniti, Daniel

doi:10.1016/s0378-4347(00)00220-6

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…Phase separation based on hydrophilic polymers is an important process, especially in biology, for example, droplets formed from RNA-or protein-rich bodies in embryos of Caenorhabditis elegans [1] or in the cold cataracts formation in the cytoplasm leading to eye lens opacification. [2] The presence of hydrophilic polymers leads to macromolecular crowding, which results in increased reaction rates for processes like biopolymer synthesis. [3] Thus, it is speculated that hydrophilic polymers and their phase separation in aqueous environment played a crucial role in the origin of life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Hydrophilic Block Copolymer Self‐Assembly in Aqueous Solution

Schmidt

2018

Macro Chemistry & Physics

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Self‐assembly of double hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBCs) in water is an emerging area of research. The self‐assembly process can be derived from aqueous two‐phase systems that are composed of hydrophilic homopolymers at elevated concentration. Consecutively, DHBCs form self‐assembled structures like micelles, vesicles, or particles at high concentrations in water and without the use of external triggers that would change solubility of individual blocks. Careful choice of the two hydrophilic blocks and design of the polymer structure allows formation of self‐assembled structures with high efficiency. The present contribution highlights recent research in the area of DHBC self‐assembly, including the polymer types employed and strategies for crosslinking of the self‐assembled structures. Moreover, an overview of aqueous multiphase systems and theoretical considerations of DHBC self‐assembly are presented, as well as an outlook regarding potential future applications in areas such as the biomedical field.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Hydrophilic Block Copolymer Self‐Assembly in Aqueous Solution

Schmidt

2018

Macro Chemistry & Physics

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Purification and characterization of crystallins by aqueous two-phase extraction

Bermudez

Forciniti

2001

Biotechnol. Bioprocess Eng.

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A combined approach to extract rotational dynamics of globular proteins undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation

Gendreizig,

Kalarikkal,

Holtbrügge

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The formation of protein condensates (droplets) via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a commonly observed phenomenon in vitro. Changing the environmental properties with cosolutes, molecular crowders, protein partners, temperature, pressure, etc. was shown to favour or disfavour the formation of protein droplets by fine-tuning the water-water, water-protein and protein-protein interactions. Therefore, these environmental properties and their spatiotemporal fine-tuning are likely to be important also in a cellular context at the existing protein expression levels. One of the key physicochemical properties of biomolecules impacted by molecular crowding is diffusion, which determines the viscoelastic behaviour of the condensates. Here we investigate the change in the rotational diffusion of γD-crystallin, undergoing LLPS in vitro in aqueous solutions in absence and presence of cosolutes. We studied its rotational dynamics using molecular dynamics simulations (MD), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. MD simulations performed under dilute and crowded conditions show that the rotational diffusion of crystallin in water is retarded by one to two orders of magnitude in the condensed phase. To obtain the rotational dynamics in the dilute phase we used fluorescence anisotropy and to extract the retardation factor in in the condensed phase we used spin-labeled γD-crystallin proteins as EPR viscosity nanoprobes. Aided by a viscosity nanoruler calibrated with solutions at increasing sucrose concentrations, we validate the rotational diffusion retardation predicted by MD simulations. This study underlines the predictive power of MD simulations and showcases the use of a sensitive EPR nanoprobe to extract the viscosity of biomolecular condensates.

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Cold cataracts: a naturally occurring aqueous two-phase system

Cited by 4 publications

References 21 publications

Double Hydrophilic Block Copolymer Self‐Assembly in Aqueous Solution

Double Hydrophilic Block Copolymer Self‐Assembly in Aqueous Solution

Purification and characterization of crystallins by aqueous two-phase extraction

A combined approach to extract rotational dynamics of globular proteins undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation

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