Fig. 1: Phase separation and adsorption of poly-rA and -rC.
From: Differential interactions determine anisotropies at interfaces of RNA-based biomolecular condensates
a Poly-rA (1 g/L) undergoes phase separation in the presence of high concentrations of NaCl and PEG, b forming spherical (ii) or irregularly-shaped condensates. c poly-rC (1 g/L) phase separation requires higher concentrations of NaCl and PEG d to form spherical condensates. e The dense phases in a mixture of poly-rA (1 g/L) and poly-rC (1 g/L) show a range of condensate architectures. At low concentrations of PEG (i of f) or low concentrations of NaCl (I of g) the dense phase is homogenous. Increasing either the concentration of PEG or NaCl, poly-rA forms condensates and some poly-rC is recruited into it (ii of f, II or g). Notably, poly-rC adsorbs to the interface. The extent of adsorption increases with increasing concentrations of PEG (iii of f) or NaCl (III, IV, V of g). At higher concentrations of PEG, for fixed NaCl, or higher concentrations of NaCl for fixed PEG, the adsorbed poly-rC undergoes phase separation leading to a poly-rA-rich phase coexisting with a poly-rC-rich phase. Adsorption of poly-rC around the poly-rA dense phase is still observed (iv of panel f, VI and VII of g). All scale bars in the confocal images represent 3 μm. Confocal images show representative examples of observations on 50 or more condensates. Source data are provided as a Source Data file—see Data Availability Statement.
