Engineering Heterotypic Biomolecular Condensates with Synthetic Peptides for Controlled Spatial Organization and Liquid-like Nature

Abstract

Sequence heterogeneity is a defining feature of cellular biomolecular condensates, yet how competing interaction motifs encode their thermodynamic stability, internal organization, and dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we systematically tune the hydrophobicity mismatch between intrinsically disordered peptide pairs to establish sequence hydrophobicity as a programmable determinant of heterotypic condensate behaviour. We show that heterotypic condensates are thermodynamically more stable than homotypic ones having same average hydrophobicity through the cooperative interplay of short-range hydrophobic and long-range electrostatic interactions. Increasing hydrophobicity mismatch drives a composition-dependent transition from homogeneous condensates to core-shell architectures accompanied by pronounced spatial and dynamical heterogeneity, whereas reducing sequence disparity restores homogeneous organization and nearly uniform dynamics. Our results establish a direct molecular link between sequence chemistry, phase stability, condensate architecture, and transport dynamics, providing predictive design principles for engineering synthetic biomolecular condensates with programmable organization and material properties. TOC O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=105 SRC="FIGDIR/small/743201v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (36K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@12e7fborg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@13c31a0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@de3453org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3d4600_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG