title: Cooperativity in self-limiting equilibrium self-associating systems.
abstract: A wide variety of highly cooperative self-assembly processes in biological and synthetic systems involve the assembly of a large number (m) of units into clusters, with m narrowly peaked about a large size m(0) ≫ 1 and with a second peak centered about the m = 1 unassembled monomers. While very specific models have been proposed for the assembly of, for example, viral capsids and core-shell micelles of ß-casein, no available theory describes a thermodynamically general mechanism for this double peaked, highly cooperative equilibrium assembly process. This study provides a general mechanism for these cooperative processes by developing a minimal Flory-Huggins type theory. Beginning from the simplest non-cooperative, free association model in which the equilibrium constant for addition of a monomer to a cluster is independent of cluster size, the new model merely allows more favorable growth for clusters of intermediate sizes. The theory is illustrated by computing the phase diagram for cases of self-assembly on cooling or heating and for the mass distribution of the two phases.
authors.affiliation: James Franck Institute and Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Karl F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Freed
mesh_terms: D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D002364:Caseins / Q000737:chemistry; D008823:Micelles; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D002364:Caseins; D008823:Micelles