Recruitment of mRNAs to P granules by condensation with intrinsically-disordered proteins

  1. Chih-Yung S Lee
  2. Andrea Putnam
  3. Tu Lu
  4. ShuaiXin He
  5. John Paul T Ouyang
  6. Geraldine Seydoux  Is a corresponding author
  1. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 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.

Data availability

Sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession number GSE139881,GSE139878, GSE139879 and GSE139880.Description of iCLIP analysis and additional python codes are deposited in Github :https://github.com/fishhead1978/iCLIP_2019

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Chih-Yung S Lee

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Andrea Putnam

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Tu Lu

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5697-300X
  4. ShuaiXin He

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. John Paul T Ouyang

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Geraldine Seydoux

    Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
    For correspondence
    gseydoux@jhmi.edu
    Competing interests
    Geraldine Seydoux, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Dewpoint Therapeutics, Inc.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8257-0493

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R37 HD37047)

  • Geraldine Seydoux

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  • Geraldine Seydoux

National Institutes of Health (T32 GM007445)

  • John Paul T Ouyang

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2020, Lee et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 8,528
    views
  • 1,151
    downloads
  • 105
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Chih-Yung S Lee
  2. Andrea Putnam
  3. Tu Lu
  4. ShuaiXin He
  5. John Paul T Ouyang
  6. Geraldine Seydoux
(2020)
Recruitment of mRNAs to P granules by condensation with intrinsically-disordered proteins
eLife 9:e52896.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52896

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52896

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    Tomoharu Kanie, Roy Ng ... Peter K Jackson
    Research Article

    The primary cilium is a microtubule-based organelle that cycles through assembly and disassembly. In many cell types, formation of the cilium is initiated by recruitment of ciliary vesicles to the distal appendage of the mother centriole. However, the distal appendage mechanism that directly captures ciliary vesicles is yet to be identified. In an accompanying paper, we show that the distal appendage protein, CEP89, is important for the ciliary vesicle recruitment, but not for other steps of cilium formation (Tomoharu Kanie, Love, Fisher, Gustavsson, & Jackson, 2023). The lack of a membrane binding motif in CEP89 suggests that it may indirectly recruit ciliary vesicles via another binding partner. Here, we identify Neuronal Calcium Sensor-1 (NCS1) as a stoichiometric interactor of CEP89. NCS1 localizes to the position between CEP89 and a ciliary vesicle marker, RAB34, at the distal appendage. This localization was completely abolished in CEP89 knockouts, suggesting that CEP89 recruits NCS1 to the distal appendage. Similarly to CEP89 knockouts, ciliary vesicle recruitment as well as subsequent cilium formation was perturbed in NCS1 knockout cells. The ability of NCS1 to recruit the ciliary vesicle is dependent on its myristoylation motif and NCS1 knockout cells expressing a myristoylation defective mutant failed to rescue the vesicle recruitment defect despite localizing properly to the centriole. In sum, our analysis reveals the first known mechanism for how the distal appendage recruits the ciliary vesicles.

    1. Cell Biology
    Tomoharu Kanie, Beibei Liu ... Peter K Jackson
    Research Article

    Distal appendages are nine-fold symmetric blade-like structures attached to the distal end of the mother centriole. These structures are critical for formation of the primary cilium, by regulating at least four critical steps: ciliary vesicle recruitment, recruitment and initiation of intraflagellar transport (IFT), and removal of CP110. While specific proteins that localize to the distal appendages have been identified, how exactly each protein functions to achieve the multiple roles of the distal appendages is poorly understood. Here we comprehensively analyze known and newly discovered distal appendage proteins (CEP83, SCLT1, CEP164, TTBK2, FBF1, CEP89, KIZ, ANKRD26, PIDD1, LRRC45, NCS1, CEP15) for their precise localization, order of recruitment, and their roles in each step of cilia formation. Using CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts, we show that the order of the recruitment of the distal appendage proteins is highly interconnected and a more complex hierarchy. Our analysis highlights two protein modules, CEP83-SCLT1 and CEP164-TTBK2, as critical for structural assembly of distal appendages. Functional assays revealed that CEP89 selectively functions in RAB34+ ciliary vesicle recruitment, while deletion of the integral components, CEP83-SCLT1-CEP164-TTBK2, severely compromised all four steps of cilium formation. Collectively, our analyses provide a more comprehensive view of the organization and the function of the distal appendage, paving the way for molecular understanding of ciliary assembly.