Physics of nuclear bodies

Eukaryotic nucleus is not a uniform solution of DNA, but there are a number of nuclear bodies in the interchromatin spaces. There are growing number of experiments that suggest that nuclear bodies are assembled by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Condensates assembled by LLPS show coarsening or coalescence to decrease the surface energy. However, in some nuclear bodies, such as paraspeckles, nuclear stress bodies, and fibrillar centers in nucleoli, multiple condensates are stably dispersed and are not likely assembled by LLPS. The assembly mechanism of nuclear bodies is relevant to the regulation of the area of condensate surfaces, which are functional in some nuclear bodies, and the mobility of nuclear bodies. Hirose group (Osaka Univ.) has elucidated that nuclear bodies are scaffolded by a class of RNA, called architectural RNA (arcRNA), which forms complexes with RNA binding proteins. This implies that the assembly of nuclear bodies is governed RNA dynamics, such as transcription, degradation, and processing, and the sequence of bases of arcRNA. In the seminar, I will show how the base sequences and the dynamics of RNA are involved in the assembly of paraspeckles and fibrillar centers in nucleoli.