SpiDec: Computing binodals and interfacial tension of biomolecular condensates from simulations of spinodal decomposition

oleh: Konstantinos Mazarakos, Ramesh Prasad, Huan-Xiang Zhou, Huan-Xiang Zhou

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-01

Deskripsi

Phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is a phenomenon associated with many essential cellular processes, but a robust method to compute the binodal from molecular dynamics simulations of IDPs modeled at the all-atom level in explicit solvent is still elusive, due to the difficulty in preparing a suitable initial dense configuration and in achieving phase equilibration. Here we present SpiDec as such a method, based on spontaneous phase separation via spinodal decomposition that produces a dense slab when the system is initiated at a homogeneous, low density. After illustrating the method on four model systems, we apply SpiDec to a tetrapeptide modeled at the all-atom level and solvated in TIP3P water. The concentrations in the dense and dilute phases agree qualitatively with experimental results and point to binodals as a sensitive property for force-field parameterization. SpiDec may prove useful for the accurate determination of the phase equilibrium of IDPs.