Related papers: Mesoscale phase separation of chromatin in the nuc…
Biomolecular condensates in cells are often rich in catalytically-active enzymes. This is particularly true in the case of the large enzymatic complexes known as metabolons, which contain different enzymes that participate in the same…
We study chemical oscillators in the presence of phase separation. By imposing timescale separation between slow reactions and fast diffusion, we define a dynamics at phase equilibrium for the relevant degrees of freedom. We demonstrate…
The cellular environment, characterized by its intricate composition and spatial organization, hosts a variety of organelles, ranging from membrane-bound ones to membraneless structures that are formed through liquid-liquid phase…
How long threadlike eukaryotic chromosomes fit tidily in the small volume of the nucleus without significant entanglement is just beginning to be understood, thanks to major advances in experimental techniques. Several polymer models, which…
Three-dimensional (3D) chromatin structure is closely related to genome function, in particular transcription. However, the folding path of the chromatin fiber in the interphase nucleus is unknown. Here, we systematically measured the 3D…
The state of chromatin in individual cells is directly related to the state of the whole organism and may be used for assessment of the state of the whole organism. Many hereditary diseases are connected with chromatin rearrangements.…
Liquid-liquid phase separation plays a major role in the formation and maintenance of various membrane-less subcellular structures in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. Biological condensates contain enhanced concentrations of proteins and…
Biomolecular phase separation is typically attributed to the polymer physics of long, disordered chains. However, the underlying chemical grammar, i.e. the specific interactions between protein and RNA building blocks, remains poorly…
We investigate the phase transition properties of the polymer-Potts model, a chain composed of monomers with magnetic degrees of freedom, with the motivation to study the conformation and mark switching dynamics of chromatin. By the…
The contributions of active deformation dynamics in cell nuclei to the intra-nuclear positioning of hetero- and euchromatin are investigated. We analyzed the behaviors of model chains containing two types of regions, one with high and the…
We study the phase ordering colloids suspended in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal below the clearing point Tni and the resulting aggregated structure. Small (150nm) PMMA particles are dispersed in a classical liquid crystal matrix,…
DNA methylation is a primary layer of epigenetic modification that plays a pivotal role in the regulation of development, aging, and cancer. The concurrent activity of opposing enzymes that mediate DNA methylation and demethylation gives…
Proteins and nucleic acids can spontaneously self-assemble into membraneless droplet-like compartments, both in vitro and in vivo. A key component of these droplets are multi-valent proteins that possess several adhesive domains with…
In the Drosophila melanogaster egg chamber, the collective migration of border cells toward the oocyte is guided by spatial gradients of chemoattractants. While cellular responses to these cues are well characterized, the spatial…
We present a model improving the two-angle model for interphase chromatin (E2A model). This model takes into account the cylindrical shape of the histone octamers, the H1 histones in front of the nucleosomes and the vertical distance $d$…
We solve a hydrodynamic model of active chromatin dynamics, within a confined geometry simulating the cell nucleus. Using both analytical and numerical methods, we describe the behavior of the chromatin polymer driven by the activity of…
Phase separation of two phase separating solutes in a common solvent can result in mesoscale (micron-sized) droplets with complex topologies of the domains of each solute within each droplet. Such topologies have been observed in-vitro in…
This article presents a physical biology approach to understanding organization and segregation of bacterial chromosomes. The author uses a "piston" analogy for bacterial chromosomes in a cell, which leads to a phase diagram for the…
One-dimensional arrays of nucleosomes (DNA-bound histone octamers separated by stretches of linker DNA) fold into higher-order chromatin structures which ultimately make up eukaryotic chromosomes. Chromatin structure formation leads to…
Phase transitions ruled by nucleation and growth can occur by nonrandom arrangement of nuclei. This is verified, for instance, in thin film growth at solid surfaces by vapor condensation or by electrodeposition where, around each nucleus, a…