In a collaboration with the group of Frank Jülicher at the MPI-PKS, Shamba Saha and colleagues have discovered that an RNA-competition mechanism is at the heart of correct P granule positioning in C. elegans. P granules are liquid-like compartments that segregate to the posterior end of the one-cell embryo before cell division. Previous work in our lab revealed that P granules dissolved at one end of the embryo and condensed at the other to drive segregation (Brangwynne et al, 2009), but it was not known what regulated this process until now. Read the paper, the MPI-CBG press release, and watch Shamba’s video abstract below!
Saha S, Weber CA, Nousch M, Adame-Arana O, Hoege C, Hein MY, Osborne-Nishimura E, Mahamid J, Jahnel M, Jawerth L, Pozniakovski A, Eckmann CR, Jülicher F, Hyman AA. Polar Positioning of Phase-Separated Liquid Compartments in Cells Regulated by an mRNA Competition Mechanism. 2016, Cell 166(6):1572-1584.