An emerging concept in post-transcriptional regulation is the formation of biomolecular condensates, also termed membraneless organelles (MLOs). Stress Granules (SGs), Processing bodies (PBs) and a growing number of additional MLOs that contain transcripts in association with scaffold and regulatory proteins affect RNA processing, stability, localization and translation. We aim to uncover how the condensation and dissolution of diverse MLOs is governed by physiological clues and how this impacts
cellular function.
We have discovered synaptic MLOs that selectively release or sequester mRNAs to regulate local translation downstream of neuronal activation. We identified the role of molecular motors in SG assembly and disassembly, and our current work underscores additional cellular pathways for SG regulation. Our recent findings highlight the relevance of MLOs formed by the conserved RNA regulator Smaug, which were originally described in our lab, to mitochondrial function. Importantly, Smaug MLOs respond to the non-canonical activation of Smoothened, an emerging pathway for metabolic control. This underscores a novel arm for the regulation of cell energetics that implicates the condensation of RNA regulators.