Elucidating the interactions between membrane-bound and membraneless organelles using SANS analysis of minimalistic peptide and lipid model systems

Cell nucleus contains membrane-bound and membraneless subcellular organelles that accommodate and control biocatalytic processes. Their structures and functions are poorly characterised. Despite recent progress in elucidating the mechanism of membraneless organelles formation by liquid-liquid phase separation1 (LLPS) of intrinsically disordered proteins, the interaction between protein-based organelles and lipid membrane-bound organelles remains unknown. This work follows our recent advances in the models of the two entities using small designed peptides and lipid vesicles, we propose to study how the two model organelles interact across the model interface when they are brought together. The parallel SANS runs under H/D substitutions offer great potential for unraveling the key molecular structural features from representative short peptides and environmental conditions.