Fig. 4: Partitioning of ss and dsRNA 10- and 20mers in selected coacervates.
a Fluorescence images of Cy3-labeled ssRNA 10mer in (Lys)10/(Asp)5, (Lys)10/(Asp)10, (Lys)30/(Asp)30, and (Lys)100/(Asp)100 coacervate systems. b Fluorescence images of Cy3-labeled ssRNA 10mer and 20mer, and dsRNA 10mer and 20mer all in a (Lys)10/ATP coacervate. Note that laser intensity was optimized separately for each sample in panels a and b; quantification based on calibration curves is shown in panel c and d. c, d Calculated concentration of ssRNA 10mer and 20mer, and dsRNA 10mer and 20mer in the coacervate droplets for (Lys)10/ATP, (Lys)10/(Asp)5, (Lys)10/(Asp)10, (Lys)30/(Asp)30, and (Lys)100/(Asp)100 coacervate pairs. Center lines show the medians; box limits indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles; whiskers extend maximum and minimum data points. Note that bright puncta were observed for (Lys)10/ATP for partitioning of ssRNA 20mer and of dsRNA 10mer and 20mer. Asterisks represent the coacervates containing puncta/speckles. RNA strands were added to a final concentration of 0.1 µM for all cases. RNA concentration in the droplets was calculated without including ATP/(Lys)10 bright speckles, which we interpret as a new phase in which RNA is the main polyanionic component. Error bars show standard deviation of measurements of average of 20 samples over analysis of three independent trials.
