Aromatic and arginine content drives multiphasic condensation of protein–RNA mixtures

Abstract

Multiphasic architectures are found ubiquitously in biomolecular condensates and are thought to have important implications for the organisation of multiple chemical reactions within the same compartment. Many of these multiphasic condensates contain RNA in addition to proteins. Here, we investigate the importance of different interactions in multiphasic condensates comprising two different proteins and RNA using computer simulations with a residue-resolution coarse-grained model of proteins and RNA. We find that in multilayered condensates containing RNA in both phases, protein–RNA interactions dominate, with aromatic residues and arginine forming the key stabilising interactions. The total aromatic and arginine content of the two proteins must be appreciably different for distinct phases to form, and we show that this difference increases as the system is driven towards greater multiphasicity. Using the trends observed in the different interaction energies of this system, we demonstrate that we can also construct multilayered condensates with RNA preferentially concentrated in one phase. The ‘rules’ identified can thus enable the design of synthetic multiphasic condensates to facilitate further study of their organisation and function.