Control of Superselectivity by Crowding in Three-Dimensional Hosts

Motivated by the fine compositional control observed in membraneless droplet organelles in cells, we investigate how a sharp binding-unbinding transition can occur between multivalent client molecules and receptors embedded in a porous three-dimensional structure. In contrast to similar superselecti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2021-01, Vol.126 (2), p.028002-028002, Article 028002
Main Authors: Christy, Andrew T R, Kusumaatmaja, Halim, Miller, Mark A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Binding
Crowding
Models, Biological
Monte Carlo Method
Organelles
Organelles - chemistry
Organelles - metabolism
Protein Binding
Proteins - chemistry
Proteins - metabolism
Receptors, Cell Surface - chemistry
Receptors, Cell Surface - metabolism
RNA - chemistry
RNA - metabolism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Motivated by the fine compositional control observed in membraneless droplet organelles in cells, we investigate how a sharp binding-unbinding transition can occur between multivalent client molecules and receptors embedded in a porous three-dimensional structure. In contrast to similar superselective binding previously observed at surfaces, we have identified that a key effect in a three-dimensional environment is that the presence of inert crowding agents can significantly enhance or even introduce superselectivity. In essence, molecular crowding initially suppresses binding via an entropic penalty, but the clients can then more easily form many bonds simultaneously. We demonstrate the robustness of the superselective behavior with respect to client valency, linker length, and binding interactions in Monte Carlo simulations of an archetypal lattice polymer model.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.028002