RNA granules: functional compartments or incidental condensates?
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA
- Corresponding author: gseydoux{at}jhmi.edu
Abstract
RNA granules are mesoscale assemblies that form in the absence of limiting membranes. RNA granules contain factors for RNA biogenesis and turnover and are often assumed to represent specialized compartments for RNA biochemistry. Recent evidence suggests that RNA granules assemble by phase separation of subsoluble ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes that partially demix from the cytoplasm or nucleoplasm. We explore the possibility that some RNA granules are nonessential condensation by-products that arise when RNP complexes exceed their solubility limit as a consequence of cellular activity, stress, or aging. We describe the use of evolutionary and mutational analyses and single-molecule techniques to distinguish functional RNA granules from “incidental condensates.”
Keywords
Footnotes
-
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.350518.123.
-
Freely available online through the Genes & Development Open Access option.
This article, published in Genes & Development, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.