Specific Spatial Localization of Actin and DNA in a Water/Water Microdroplet: Self-Emergence of a Cell-Like Structure.
The effect of binary hydrophilic polymers on a pair of representative bio-macromolecules in a living cell has been examined. The results showed that these bio-macromolecules exhibited specific localization in cell-sized droplets that were spontaneously formed through water/water microphase segregation under crowding conditions with coexisting polymers. In these experiments, a simple binary polymer system with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran (DEX) was used. Under the conditions of microphase segregation, DNA was entrapped within cell-sized droplets rich in DEX. Similarly, F-actin, linearly polymerized actin, was entrapped specifically within microdroplets rich in DEX, whereas G-actin, a monomeric actin, was distributed evenly inside and outside these droplets. This study has been extended to a system with both F-actin and DNA, and it was found that DNA molecules were localized separately from aligned F-actin proteins to create microdomains inside microdroplets, reflecting the self-emergence of a cellular morphology similar to a stage of cell division.
['Nakatani|Naoki|N|', 'Sakuta|Hiroki|H|0000-0001-8473-6370', 'Hayashi|Masahito|M|', 'Tanaka|Shunsuke|S|', 'Takiguchi|Kingo|K|0000-0002-7640-0954', 'Tsumoto|Kanta|K|0000-0002-7882-3635', 'Yoshikawa|Kenichi|K|0000-0002-2751-7136']
D000199:Actins D000818:Animals D058045:Artificial Cells D002645:Chickens D004247:DNA D003911:Dextrans D011092:Polyethylene Glycols D014867:Water
DNA microdroplets liquids phase separation synthetic biology