"Each cell in a body contains around 10 billion biological particles, roughly as many people as are on the planet, packed together as densely as if all of these people are living in Chicago. They are organized into compartments that collectively produce life's processes. Some of the compartments, like mitochondria and other organelles, are held together by membranes, while condensates form when certain molecules in the cell attract each other and flock together like a group of migrating birds."
""Our work makes an important advancement in our understanding of how condensates are built from their molecular components," said cell biologist Wilton T. Snead, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, who led the research. "Specifically, our study was the first to uncover how combinations of protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions can establish a complex molecular 'logic' that dictates condensate form.""
Paraspeckles are nuclear condensates present in many organ systems that assemble when proteins compete for the same region of a long RNA, producing layered spatial arrangements. Protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions combine to create a molecular logic that determines condensate architecture, with competition among proteins driving their localization within the paraspeckle. Condensates regulate signaling, protein production, and DNA transcription and form alongside membrane-bound organelles in densely packed cells containing roughly ten billion biological particles. Understanding this competitive assembly mechanism can enable prediction of other condensate behaviors and support targeted approaches to manipulate subcellular compartments for cancer therapeutics.
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