Emerging Roles for Phase Separation in Plants

Abstract

The plant cell internal environment is a dynamic, intricate landscape composed of many intracellular compartments. Cells organize some cellular components through formation of biomolecular condensatesnon-stoichiometric assemblies of protein and/or nucleic acids. In many cases, phase separation appears to either underly or contribute to the formation of biomolecular condensates. Many canonical membraneless compartments within animal cells form in a manner that is at least consistent with phase separation, including nucleoli, stress granules, Cajal bodies, and numerous additional bodies, regulated by developmental and environmental stimuli. In this Review, we examine the emerging roles for phase separation in plants. Further, drawing on studies carried out in other organisms, we identify cellular phenomenon in plants that might also arise via phase separation. We propose that plants make use of phase separation to a much greater extent than has been previously appreciated, implicating phase separation as an evolutionarily ancient mechanism for cellular organization.

Transcriptional condensates formed by phase-separated ALOG family proteins control shoot meristem maturation for flowering

“…Our study discovered that plants adopt a selective-recruitment phase separation mechanism to coordinate the functional overlapped paralogs to achieve biological robustness. Protein phase separation represents a type of dynamic and flexible protein behavior that has been recently reported to implicate in acclimation responses to cellular pH levels, heat and oxidative stress (Emenecker et al, 2020(Emenecker et al, , 2021Franzmann et al, 2018;Kroschwald et al, 2018;Riback et al, 2017). The biological condensates formed by phase-separated inseparable paralogous proteins might be essential for transcriptional adaption to cellular or environmental stresses.…”

“…Besides canonical membrane-bound organelles, biomolecular condensates, micron-scale membraneless compartments formed by liquid-liquid phase separation, have been recently found to spatially concentrate proteins and nucleic acids (Banani et al, 2017). To date biomolecular condensates formed by protein phase separation have recently been demonstrated as a new strategy for many cellular functions in yeast and animal systems, including cell polarity establishment and maintenance, cell signaling, cell and organ development, cell survival, and aging (Emenecker et al, 2020). However, the mechanism of protein phase separation and the function of derived biomolecular condensates in plants are still largely uninvestigated.…”

The F-box protein AFF1 regulates ARF protein accumulation to regulate auxin response

“…We found that elevated ARF19 levels counterintuitively resulted in attenuated auxin responses. Protein condensation and phase separation are concentration-dependent events (13). Further, ARF19 condensation attenuates auxin responsiveness (4).…”

Co-Transcriptional RNA Processing in Plants: Exploring from the Perspective of Polyadenylation

“…Various functions in plants rely on proteins with IDRs, including DELLA, CRY, BKI1, BAK1, and ELF3 [ 121 , 122 , 123 ]. A specific nuclear LLPS condensate of the polyadenylation complex has been observed in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.…”