Fig. 4. Impact of repeating wet-dry cycles on the complex coacervate.
a PDADMA/PAA coacervates ([Charge] = [NaCl] = 10 mM, [HEPES] = 5 mM, [MgCl2] = 0.9 mM) were fully dried and rehydrated for five consecutive cycles. The plot shows the average weights after drying-rehydration. b The concentration of U15 in the same coacervate after rehydration of samples obtained by confocal microscopy using Alexa 647-U15 as a probe. c The partitioning coefficient, K, taken as [U15]coacervate phase/[U15]dilute phase, after each cycle. d Apparent diffusion coefficients obtained from halftime of fluorescence recovery during FRAP experiment where whole coacervate droplets, containing the Alexa 647-U15 probe, were bleached. e Apparent diffusion coefficients in FRAP experiments where a 1-µm diameter region within the coacervate phase was bleached. The data in b–e are averages and standard deviations of two trials with an analysis of 10 droplets total for b, with the same values used when dividing by the [U15] in the dilute phase in c, six droplets in d, and 10 intradroplet areas in e. Individual data points are shown as gray markers. Supplementary Tables 5 and 6 include all FRAP fitting parameters.