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Updated: Dec 30, 2025

Visualization of G3BP Stress Granules Dynamics in Live Primary Cells
Published on: May 21, 2014
Recruitment of mRNAs to P granules by condensation with intrinsically-disordered proteins
Chih-Yung S Lee1, Andrea Putnam1, Tu Lu1
1HHMI and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States.
Abstract:
RNA granules are protein/RNA condensates. How specific mRNAs are recruited to cytoplasmic RNA granules is not known. Here, we characterize the transcriptome and assembly of P granules, RNA granules in the C. elegans germ plasm. We find that P granules recruit mRNAs by condensation with the disordered protein MEG-3. MEG-3 traps mRNAs into non-dynamic condensates in vitro and binds to ~500 mRNAs in vivo in a sequence-independent manner that favors embryonic mRNAs with low ribosome coverage. Translational stress causes additional mRNAs to localize to P granules and translational activation correlates with P granule exit for two mRNAs coding for germ cell fate regulators. Localization to P granules is not required for translational repression but is required to enrich mRNAs in the germ lineage for robust germline development. Our observations reveal similarities between P granules and stress granules and identify intrinsically-disordered proteins as drivers of RNA condensation during P granule assembly.
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