RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Characterization of RNA content in individual phase-separated coacervate microdroplets
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.03.08.434405
DO 10.1101/2021.03.08.434405
A1 Damian Wollny
A1 Benjamin Vernot
A1 Jie Wang
A1 Maria Hondele
A1 Anthony Hyman
A1 Karsten Weis
A1 J. Gray Camp
A1 T.-Y. Dora Tang
A1 Barbara Treutlein
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/08/2021.03.08.434405.abstract
AB Liquid-liquid phase separation or condensation is a form of macromolecular compartmentalization. Condensates formed by complex coacervation were hypothesized to have played a crucial part during the origin-of-life. In living cells, condensation organizes biomolecules into a wide range of membraneless compartments. Although RNA is a key component of condensation in cells and the central component of the RNA world hypothesis, little is known about what determines RNA accumulation in condensates and how single condensates differ in their RNA composition. Therefore, we developed an approach to read the RNA content from single condensates using high-throughput sequencing. We find that RNAs which are enriched for specific sequence motifs efficiently accumulate in condensates. These motifs show high sequence similarity to short interspersed elements (SINEs). We observed similar results for protein-derived condensates, demonstrating applicability across different in vitro reconstituted membraneless organelles. Thus, our results provide a new inroad to explore the RNA content of phase-separated droplets at single condensate resolution.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.