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Abstract Biomolecular condensates are membraneless organelle-like structures that can concentrate molecules and often form through liquid-liquid phase separation. Biomolecular condensate assembly is tightly regulated by developmental and environmental cues. Although research on biomolecular condensates has intensified in the past 10 years, our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms and components underlying their formation remains in its infancy, especially in plants. However, recent studies have shown that the formation of biomolecular condensates may be central to plant acclimation to stress conditions. Here, we describe the mechanism, regulation, and properties of stress-related condensates in plants, focusing on stress granules and processing bodies, two of the most well-characterized biomolecular condensates. In this regard, we showcase the proteomes of stress granules and processing bodies, in an attempt to suggest methods for elucidating the composition and function of biomolecular condensates. Finally, we discuss how biomolecular condensates modulate stress responses and how they might be used as targets for biotechnological efforts to improve stress tolerance.
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This content will become publicly available on July 7, 2027
Combinatorial decision-making driven by multicomponent surface condensates
Living organisms rely on molecular networks, such as gene circuits and signaling pathways, for information processing and robust decision-making in crowded, noisy environments. Recent advances show that interacting biomolecules self-organize by phase transitions into coexisting spatial compartments called condensates, often on cellular surfaces such as chromatin and membranes. In this paper, we demonstrate that multicomponent fluids can be designed to recruit distinct condensates to surfaces with differing compositions, performing a form of surface classification by condensation. We draw an analogy to multidimensional classification in machine learning and explore how hidden species, analogous to hidden nodes, expand the expressivity and capacity of these interacting ensembles to facilitate complex decision boundaries. By simply changing levels of individual species, we find that the same molecular repertoire can be reprogrammed to solve new tasks. Together, our findings suggest that the physical processes underlying biomolecular condensates can encode and drive adaptive information processing beyond compartmentalization.
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- PAR ID:
- 10696429
- Publisher / Repository:
- PNAS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume:
- 123
- Issue:
- 27
- ISSN:
- 0027-8424
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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