Fig. 1.
The intrinsically disordered ELP3 recapitulates the phase behavior and elasticity of tropoelastin materials. (A) CD spectra of ELP3 and tropoelastin monomers in 50 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7 at 20 °C, contain features that are indicative of highly disordered proteins. (B) Bright-field microscopy of temperature-induced phase separation of ELP3 and tropoelastin in 1.5 M NaCl solution after 1 h of incubation at 50 °C. (White scale bars, 32 μm.) (C) Mechanical properties of polymeric ELP3 and tropoelastin coacervates cross-linked at lysine residues by genipin. Error bars correspond to the SEM.