Fig. 3: Motility of microphase-separated BSA rafts on oil droplet surfaces.

a Relative mean squared displacement (MSD) ratios of BSA ___domain size (smaller 50% of population): BSA ___domain size (larger 50%) determined for oil droplet-supported lateral BSA-in-PVA microstructures. b Anomalous exponent (α) of discontinuous BSA domains determined at different area ratios (AR). c Total motion path length of discontinuous BSA domains for AR values of 0.13 and 0.40. Trajectories of floating BSA rafts for AR values of 0.13 (d) or 0.40 (e). f MSD plot of Brownian motion of BSA domains at 0, 1.5, or 3% sodium alginate (SA) solutions. g Diffusion coefficient (D_t) of BSA domains in 0, 1.5 or 3% SA solutions. h In-situ CLSM fluorescence images showing changes in the configuration of lateral BSA-in-PVA microstructures floating on tributyrin oil microdroplets (BSA, 4 mg/mL; PVA, 0.6 mg/mL) at an initial pH of 7 (left), followed by acidification to pH 3 (middle) and then a decrease back to pH 7 (right). Identical numbers in the images indicate the same droplet. i 3D fluorescence microscopy top view images of floating BSA-in-PVA microstructures recorded at an initial pH of 7 (left), and after acidification to pH 3 (middle) followed by increasing the pH back to 7 (right). Differences in (c) calculated by unpaired T-test (two-sided), ***p < 0.001. Data in (a, c, f, g) are presented as mean values ± SD, error bars indicate standard deviations (n = 5 independent experiments in (a), n = 3 independent experiments in c, f, g). All relevant experiments are performed independently at least three times with similar results. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.