Fig. 5: Designing condensates with complex architectures.
From: Biomolecular condensates with complex architectures via controlled nucleation
We set out to create condensates with droplets of phases 1 and 2 in phase 3 and droplets of phases 1 and 3 in phase 2. Using Fig. 4c–e, we predicted that a decrease in ionic strength may achieve the desired effect. a,b, The model system contains multiphase condensates at room temperature at 165 mM KCl. c,d, Rapidly diluting the system lowers the salt concentration to 55 mM KCl, causes the nucleation of droplets of phase 1 in phase 2 (gray arrowheads) and phase 3 (white arrowheads). Additionally, droplets of phase 3 are nucleated in phase 2 (yellow arrowheads) and droplets of phase 2 are nucleated in phase 3 (orange arrowheads) (Extended Data Fig. 6). This architecture is not formed when diluting everything without changing the salt concentration (Extended Data Fig. 7a) or when preparing the condensates at 55 mM immediately (Extended Data Fig. 7b). e, The theoretical maximum volume fractions that are nucleated are determined for phase 2 to be 0.29 phase 1 and 0.09 phase 3. f, Phase 3 may nucleate a maximum of 0.22 dilute phase and 0.20 phase 2. Detailed predictions are provided in Extended Data Fig. 8.
