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Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides

The elucidation of the molecular driving forces responsible for Liquid–liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) of proteins and nucleic acids within living cells is crucial for understanding its biological functions and its role in related diseases. In the present study, we investigated the regulation of LLPS...

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Autores principales: Wang, Yanwei, Xiang, Dongxin, Chen, Siyuan, Yang, Guangcan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10536796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37764485
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28186707
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author Wang, Yanwei
Xiang, Dongxin
Chen, Siyuan
Yang, Guangcan
author_facet Wang, Yanwei
Xiang, Dongxin
Chen, Siyuan
Yang, Guangcan
author_sort Wang, Yanwei
collection PubMed
description The elucidation of the molecular driving forces responsible for Liquid–liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) of proteins and nucleic acids within living cells is crucial for understanding its biological functions and its role in related diseases. In the present study, we investigated the regulation of LLPS in a series of polypeptides with repetitive proline and arginine (PR) sequences by modifying their length and the salt concentration in the solution. Our findings indicate that higher salt concentrations are necessary for LLPS of repetitive PR peptides longer than eight PRs, which emerges as a threshold value. To pinpoint the molecular forces driving the LLPS in peptides, we sequentially introduced various concentrations of hydrophobic disruptors, such as 1,6-hexanediol, and electrostatic regulators, such as ethyl alcohol and 6-Aminocaproic acid. We further modulated the electrostatic interaction by introducing ethyl alcohol and 6-Aminocaproic acid to alter the dielectric constant of the solution. The inclusion of ethyl alcohol intensified the electrostatic interaction between arginine molecules, facilitating LLPS of PR15, while 6-Aminocaproic acid yielded the reverse effect. We deduced that the phase separation in peptide systems is conjointly driven by hydrophobicity and electrostatic interactions. These insights can guide the regulation of LLPS in other peptide and protein systems, and could be pivotal in addressing abnormal aggregations of proteins and nucleic acids.
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spelling pubmed-105367962023-09-29 Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides Wang, Yanwei Xiang, Dongxin Chen, Siyuan Yang, Guangcan Molecules Article The elucidation of the molecular driving forces responsible for Liquid–liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) of proteins and nucleic acids within living cells is crucial for understanding its biological functions and its role in related diseases. In the present study, we investigated the regulation of LLPS in a series of polypeptides with repetitive proline and arginine (PR) sequences by modifying their length and the salt concentration in the solution. Our findings indicate that higher salt concentrations are necessary for LLPS of repetitive PR peptides longer than eight PRs, which emerges as a threshold value. To pinpoint the molecular forces driving the LLPS in peptides, we sequentially introduced various concentrations of hydrophobic disruptors, such as 1,6-hexanediol, and electrostatic regulators, such as ethyl alcohol and 6-Aminocaproic acid. We further modulated the electrostatic interaction by introducing ethyl alcohol and 6-Aminocaproic acid to alter the dielectric constant of the solution. The inclusion of ethyl alcohol intensified the electrostatic interaction between arginine molecules, facilitating LLPS of PR15, while 6-Aminocaproic acid yielded the reverse effect. We deduced that the phase separation in peptide systems is conjointly driven by hydrophobicity and electrostatic interactions. These insights can guide the regulation of LLPS in other peptide and protein systems, and could be pivotal in addressing abnormal aggregations of proteins and nucleic acids. MDPI 2023-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10536796/ /pubmed/37764485 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28186707 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Yanwei
Xiang, Dongxin
Chen, Siyuan
Yang, Guangcan
Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title_full Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title_fullStr Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title_full_unstemmed Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title_short Comprehensive Regulation of Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Polypeptides
title_sort comprehensive regulation of liquid–liquid phase separation of polypeptides
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10536796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37764485
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28186707
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