Emerging roles of biomolecular condensation in plant membrane biology

Plants require dynamic mechanisms of cellular organization to continuously adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Biomolecular condensation, which refers to nonstoichiometric assembly of macromolecules into membraneless compartments via phase separation, emerges as an essential regulatory strategy for plant development and stress responses. Unlike membrane-bound organelles, condensates can dynamically assemble/disassemble in response to different environmental cues. Increasing evidence indicates that versatile plant condensates associate with cellular membranes to regulate processes such as signal transduction, intracellular trafficking, organelle biogenesis, and gene expression. In this review, we summarize recent progress on representative condensates in association with the plant endomembrane system. We also highlight methodological advances, from multiscale in vivo characterization to in vitro reconstitution, which enable quantitative dissection of membrane-condensate interactions, with an emphasis on the biophysical principles governing them.