Abstract
Biomolecular condensates that form via phase separation are increasingly regarded as coordinators of cellular reactions that regulate a wide variety of biological phenomena. Mounting evidence suggests that multiple steps of the RNA life cycle are organized within RNA-binding protein-rich condensates. In this Review, we discuss recent insights into the influence of phase separation on RNA biology, which has implications for basic cell biology, the pathogenesis of human diseases and the development of novel therapies.
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Change history
24 October 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-022-00876-7
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank M. Calabrese, E.R. Hinkle, R.E. Blue and A.J. Black (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) for providing critical feedback on the manuscript. Research in the Giudice laboratory is supported by start-up funds and a Jefferson Pilot Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Institutes of Health (NIH R01GM130866) and a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association (19CDA34660248). H.J.W. is supported in part by NIH-NIGMS training award T32GM119999 and by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1650116). We acknowledge the support of the Program in Translational Medicine and the Mechanistic, Interdisciplinary Biology (MiBio) Graduate Training Program, both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Wiedner, H.J., Giudice, J. It’s not just a phase: function and characteristics of RNA-binding proteins in phase separation. Nat Struct Mol Biol 28, 465–473 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00601-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00601-w
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