A quantitative inventory of yeast P body proteins reveals principles of composition and specificity

  1. Wenmin Xing
  2. Denise Muhlrad
  3. Roy Parker
  4. Michael K Rosen  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States
  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, United States

Abstract

P bodies are archetypal biomolecular condensates that concentrate proteins and RNA without a surrounding membrane. While dozens of P body proteins are known, the concentrations of components in the compartment have not been measured. We used live cell imaging to generate a quantitative inventory of the major proteins in yeast P bodies. Only 7 proteins are highly concentrated in P bodies (5.1-15 uM); the 24 others examined are appreciably lower (most ≤ 2.6 uM). P body concentration correlates inversely with cytoplasmic exchange rate. Sequence elements driving Dcp2 concentration into P bodies are distributed across the protein and act synergistically. Our data indicate that P bodies, and probably other condensates, are compositionally simpler than suggested by proteomic analyses, with implications for specificity, reconstitution and evolution.

Data availability

All data have been submitted to Dryad, doi:10.5061/dryad.02v6wwq0q.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Wenmin Xing

    Department of Biophysics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Denise Muhlrad

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Roy Parker

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8412-4152
  4. Michael K Rosen

    Department of Biophysics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
    For correspondence
    michael.rosen@utsouthwestern.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0775-7917

Funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  • Wenmin Xing
  • Denise Muhlrad
  • Roy Parker
  • Michael K Rosen

Welch Foundation

  • Michael K Rosen

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

Reviewing Editor

  1. Robert H Singer, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States

Version history

  1. Received: March 31, 2020
  2. Accepted: June 18, 2020
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: June 19, 2020 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: July 21, 2020 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2020, Xing 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.

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  1. Wenmin Xing
  2. Denise Muhlrad
  3. Roy Parker
  4. Michael K Rosen
(2020)
A quantitative inventory of yeast P body proteins reveals principles of composition and specificity
eLife 9:e56525.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56525

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56525

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