Dynamical control enables the formation of demixed biomolecular condensates

Abstract

Macromolecular phase separation underlies the regulated formation and dissolution of biomolecular condensates. What is unclear is how condensates of distinct and shared macromolecular compositions form and coexist within cellular milieus. Here, we use theory and computation to establish thermodynamic criteria that must be satisfied to achieve compositionally distinct condensates. We applied these criteria to an archetypal ribonucleoprotein condensate and discovered that demixing into distinct protein-RNA condensates cannot be the result of purely thermodynamic considerations. Instead, demixed, compositionally distinct condensates arise due to asynchronies in timescales that emerge from differences in long-lived protein-RNA and RNA-RNA crosslinks. This type of dynamical control is also found to be active in live cells whereby asynchronous production of molecules is required for realizing demixed protein-RNA condensates. We find that interactions that exert dynamical control provide a versatile and generalizable way to influence the compositions of coexisting condensates in live cells.