Characterization of RNA content in individual phase-separated coacervate microdroplets

Damian Wollny (), Benjamin Vernot, Jie Wang, Maria Hondele, Aram Safrastyan, Franziska Aron, Julia Micheel, Zhisong He, Anthony Hyman, Karsten Weis, J. Gray Camp, T.‐Y. Dora Tang () and Barbara Treutlein ()
Additional contact information
Damian Wollny: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Benjamin Vernot: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Jie Wang: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Maria Hondele: ETH Zurich
Aram Safrastyan: Friedrich Schiller University
Franziska Aron: Friedrich Schiller University
Julia Micheel: Friedrich Schiller University
Zhisong He: University of Basel
Anthony Hyman: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Karsten Weis: ETH Zurich
J. Gray Camp: Roche Innovation Center
T.‐Y. Dora Tang: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Barbara Treutlein: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Condensates formed by complex coacervation are hypothesized to have played a crucial part during the origin-of-life. In living cells, condensation organizes biomolecules into a wide range of membraneless compartments. Although RNA is a key component of biological condensates and the central component of the RNA world hypothesis, little is known about what determines RNA accumulation in condensates and to which extend single condensates differ in their RNA composition. To address this, we developed an approach to read the RNA content from single synthetic and protein-based condensates using high-throughput sequencing. We find that certain RNAs efficiently accumulate in condensates. These RNAs are strongly enriched in sequence motifs which show high sequence similarity to short interspersed elements (SINEs). We observe similar results for protein-derived condensates, demonstrating applicability across different in vitro reconstituted membraneless organelles. Thus, our results provide a new inroad to explore the RNA content of phase-separated droplets at single condensate resolution.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30158-1

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