Biomolecular Condensates in Plant Stress and Development: Recent Advances and Emerging Concepts.
Maruri-Lopez I, Hernandez-Sanchez IE, Muraleedharan M, Chodasiewicz M
Plant Signaling
When your garden plants wilt in a heat wave and then bounce back overnight, they're using these same molecular droplets to rapidly rewire their internal chemistry without permanently changing their genes.
Inside plant cells, proteins and genetic material can spontaneously clump together into tiny droplets — not unlike oil droplets in water — that act as temporary command centers. These droplets form quickly when plants are stressed by heat, drought, or other challenges, helping the plant protect itself and adjust how its genes work. When the stress passes, the droplets dissolve and the cell returns to normal, making this a fast and reversible way for plants to adapt.
Key Findings
Biomolecular condensates form through liquid-liquid phase separation driven by proteins with intrinsically disordered or low-complexity regions, enabling reversible, dynamic assemblies without membranes.
Condensates regulate key developmental processes in plants including seed hydration, light signaling, auxin hormone pathways, and the timing of flowering.
Emerging evidence suggests condensates exist inside chloroplasts (the photosynthesis organelles), potentially with unique physical properties distinct from those in the cell's main compartment.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plant cells form temporary, membrane-free droplets called biomolecular condensates that help them survive stress and coordinate development. This review synthesizes what we know about how these dynamic structures form, what they do, and how scientists study them.
Abstract Preview
Biomolecular condensates have emerged as a central paradigm for understanding how plant cells organize biochemical processes without membrane boundaries, particularly under fluctuating environmenta...
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