TY - JOUR
T1 - Control of Superselectivity by Crowding in Three-Dimensional Hosts
AU - Christy, Andrew T. R.
AU - Kusumaatmaja, Halim
AU - Miller, Mark A.
PY - 2021/1/11
Y1 - 2021/1/11
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.028002
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.028002
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.028002
M3 - Article
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 126
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
M1 - 028002
ER -