Phase separated syestems attracted more attention due to recent discovery of cellular condensates. Compartmentalization by complex coacervation is important across a range of different fields including subcellular and prebiotic organization, colloidal science, biomedicine, food science, and personal care products. Often, lipid self-assemblies such as vesicles are also present intracellularly or in commercial formulations. A systematic understanding of how phospholipid vesicles interact with different complex coacervates could provide insight and improve control over these systems. We used anionic phospholipid vesicles in a series of different complex coacervate samples in which coacervates were formed by mixing one of five polycations with one of three (poly)anions that varied in chemical structure and length. Vesicles were found to assemble at the coacervate/continuous phase interface and/or form aggregates. We studied how factors such as the length and identity of the polyelectrolytes and the charge ratio of cationic to anionic moieties impacts vesicle distribution in coacervate samples. Our findings emphasize the importance of interactions between vesicles and polycations in the dilute supernatant phase for determining whether the vesicles aggregate prior to assembly at the liquid-liquid interface. Uptake of an RNA oligonucleotide was also investigated to understand the effect of these liposome coatings on diffusion into coacervate droplets. Systems in which uniform vesicle coronas assemble around coacervate droplets without restricting entry of biomolecules such as RNAs could be of interest as bioreactors.

Lipid and complex coacervates interactions

2019 Fall National Meeting

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