Beyond Pairwise: Higher-order physical interactions affect phase separation in multi-component liquids
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arXiv
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| Hauptverfasser: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1866911792772415488 |
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| author | Luo, Chengjie Qiang, Yicheng Zwicker, David |
| author_facet | Luo, Chengjie Qiang, Yicheng Zwicker, David |
| contents | Phase separation, crucial for spatially segregating biomolecules in cells, is well-understood in the simple case of a few components with pairwise interactions. Yet, biological cells challenge the simple picture in at least two ways: First, biomolecules, like proteins and nucleic acids, exhibit complex, higher-order interactions, where a single molecule may interact with multiple others simultaneously. Second, cells comprise a myriad of different components that form various droplets. Such multicomponent phase separation has been studied in the simple case of pairwise interactions, but an analysis of higher-order interactions is lacking. We propose such a theory and study the corresponding phase diagrams numerically. We find that interactions between three components are similar to pairwise interactions, whereas composition-dependent higher-order interactions between two components can oppose phase separation. This surprising result can only be revealed from the equilibrium phase diagrams, implying that the often-used stability analysis of homogeneous states is inadequate to study these systems. We thus show that higher-order interactions could play a crucial role in forming droplets in cells, and their manipulation could offer novel approaches to controlling multicomponent phase separation. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_06666 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Beyond Pairwise: Higher-order physical interactions affect phase separation in multi-component liquids Luo, Chengjie Qiang, Yicheng Zwicker, David Soft Condensed Matter Statistical Mechanics Biological Physics Phase separation, crucial for spatially segregating biomolecules in cells, is well-understood in the simple case of a few components with pairwise interactions. Yet, biological cells challenge the simple picture in at least two ways: First, biomolecules, like proteins and nucleic acids, exhibit complex, higher-order interactions, where a single molecule may interact with multiple others simultaneously. Second, cells comprise a myriad of different components that form various droplets. Such multicomponent phase separation has been studied in the simple case of pairwise interactions, but an analysis of higher-order interactions is lacking. We propose such a theory and study the corresponding phase diagrams numerically. We find that interactions between three components are similar to pairwise interactions, whereas composition-dependent higher-order interactions between two components can oppose phase separation. This surprising result can only be revealed from the equilibrium phase diagrams, implying that the often-used stability analysis of homogeneous states is inadequate to study these systems. We thus show that higher-order interactions could play a crucial role in forming droplets in cells, and their manipulation could offer novel approaches to controlling multicomponent phase separation. |
| title | Beyond Pairwise: Higher-order physical interactions affect phase separation in multi-component liquids |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter Statistical Mechanics Biological Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.06666 |