Active Field Theory Approach to Explain Size Control of Transcriptional Condensates.

Authors

Kathrin Hertäg, Samuel Shoup, Leonhard T Thews, Radhika Khatter, Eugenio Ferrario, Joshua F Robinson, Sina Wittmann, Sandra Schick, Thomas Speck

Published in

Macromolecular bioscience. Volume 26. Issue 10. Pages e70268.

Abstract

Transcription factors organize into liquid-like condensates to facilitate gene expression, yet the physical mechanisms governing their formation and properties remain poorly understood. We study the size statistics of transcriptional condensates in human HAP1 cells using widefield and super-resolution microscopy tagging the epigenetic reader BRD4. We find that hubs that appear monolithic in widefield resolve into clusters of smaller droplets that resist coarsening. We link this size control to Active Model B+, a non-equilibrium field theory that captures a regime of reverse Ostwald ripening out of thermal equilibrium. In this regime, chemically driven currents cause larger droplets to transfer mass back to smaller ones, stabilizing a state of microphase segregation. The observed exponential size distribution of BRD4 foci quantitatively matches our numerical simulations, suggesting a universal physical picture for the non-equilibrium self-limitation of cellular condensates.

PMID:
42839831
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Oct 2026.

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