Spatiotemporal regulation of liquid-like condensates in epigenetic inheritance
Open accessAbstract
Non-membrane-bound organelles such as nucleoli, processing bodies, Cajal bodies and germ granules form by the spontaneous self-assembly of specific proteins and RNAs. How these biomolecular condensates form and interact is poorly understood. Here we identify two proteins, ZNFX-1 and WAGO-4, that localize to Caenorhabditis elegans germ granules (P granules) in early germline blastomeres. Later in germline development, ZNFX-1 and WAGO-4 separate from P granules to define an independent liquid-like condensate that we term the Z granule. In adult germ cells, Z granules assemble into ordered tri-condensate assemblages with P granules and Mutator foci, which we term PZM granules. Finally, we show that one biological function of ZNFX-1 and WAGO-4 is to interact with silencing RNAs in the C. elegans germline to direct transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. We speculate that the temporal and spatial ordering of liquid droplet organelles may help cells to organize and coordinate the complex RNA processing pathways that underlie gene-regulatory systems, such as RNA-directed transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.
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Inheritance cases that do not involve chromosomal components have been documented.
“cases of inheritance that do not involve chromosomal components have been documented 14,17,18”
From Advances in epigenetics link genetics to the environment and disease (2019) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- Wan, G., Fields, B. D., Spracklin, G., Shukla, A., Phillips, C. M., & Kennedy, S.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kennedy, Scott
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2018-05
- Volume
- 557
- Issue
- 7707
- Pages
- 679-683
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC6479227
- OpenAlex
- W2804476437
- Cited by
- 207
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 8.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (P40OD010440)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM088289, T32GM007133)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Keywords
- biomolecular condensates, liquid-like droplets, P granules, germ granules, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, germ cell development, Caenorhabditis elegans, RNA processing
- MeSH terms
- Animals, DNA-Binding Proteins, Germ Cells, Organelles, Conserved Sequence, Caenorhabditis elegans, RNA Helicases, Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins, RNA Interference, Epigenesis, Genetic, Argonaute Proteins
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