Large-scale identification of potential phase separation proteins from plants using a cell-free system.

Biomolecular condensates have emerged as key players in cellular processes and responses to stress ( Alberti and Hyman, 2021 Alberti S. Hyman A.A. Biomolecular condensates at the nexus of cellular stress, protein aggregation disease and ageing. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2021; 22: 196-213 Crossref PubMed Scopus (309) Google Scholar ). Recent studies have revealed that most biomolecular condensates arise from liquid–liquid phase separation ( Banani et al., 2017 Banani S.F. Lee H.O. Hyman A.A. Rosen M.K. Biomolecular condensates: organizers of cellular biochemistry. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2017; 18: 285-298 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2648) Google Scholar ; Shin and Brangwynne, 2017 Shin Y. Brangwynne C.P. Liquid phase condensation in cell physiology and disease. Science. 2017; 357: eaaf4382 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1778) Google Scholar ), a process that has been described in the field of polymer chemistry. Although the investigation of phase separation has been carried out mostly in animal systems in the past decade, recent work has begun to reveal the importance of phase separation in plant biology ( Fang et al., 2019 Fang X. Wang L. Ishikawa R. Li Y. Fiedler M. Liu F. Calder G. Rowan B. Weigel D. Li P. Dean C. Arabidopsis FLL2 promotes liquid-liquid phase separation of polyadenylation complexes. Nature. 2019; 569: 265-269 Crossref PubMed Scopus (135) Google Scholar ; Powers et al., 2019 Powers S.K. Holehouse A.S. Korasick D.A. Schreiber K.H. Clark N.M. Jing H. Emenecker R. Han S. Tycksen E. Hwang I. et al. Nucleo-cytoplasmic partitioning of ARF proteins controls auxin responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol. Cell. 2019; 76: 177-190.e5 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (107) Google Scholar ; Emenecker et al., 2021 Emenecker R.J. Holehouse A.S. Strader L.C. Biological phase separation and biomolecular condensates in plants. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 2021; 72: 17-46 Crossref PubMed Scopus (32) Google Scholar ). However, information on plant proteins that possess the potential to undergo phase separation is still limited.