{"id":24398,"date":"2018-04-12T17:07:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T21:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=24398"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:54:47","slug":"droplets-rna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=24398","title":{"rendered":"UNC researchers unveil new information about what goes on in the rush-hour-like environment of a living cell"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Liquid droplets forming in cell\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i3lCXo6iaC0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em>New paper in Science shows that RNAs help certain molecules come together in liquid-like protected compartments, information that could have implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Instead of an empty space, the inside of a cell is more like a packed sidewalk in Manhattan during rush hour. Molecules are jostling past each other on their way to destinations where they work in the cell. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that some of these destinations are protected compartments where proteins and messenger RNAs condense into liquid-like droplets, much like water condenses on grass to form dew.<\/p>\n<p>What makes certain molecules come together into the same droplet or \u201csafe harbor,\u201d and why is that important? That\u2019s what UNC biologist <a href=\"http:\/\/college.unc.edu\/2016\/09\/22\/gladfelter\/\">Amy Gladfelter<\/a> and chemist Kevin Weeks unpack in a paper published online in the journal <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/early\/2018\/04\/11\/science.aar7432\">Science<\/a> on April 12.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe inside of a cell is not random soup; it has spatial structure to it. Certain things need to be near each other so they can work together. What brings everybody together is something that had not really been understood before,\u201d said Gladfelter, associate professor of biology in the College of Arts &amp; Sciences and a lead author on the paper. \u201cWe found that the molecules of RNA are recognizing each other to join together into the same cellular droplets because of very specific and complex shapes that the RNA molecules take on.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24400\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-24400\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2018\/04\/026216_gladfelter_amy001.jpg\" alt=\"Amy Gladfelter in her lab. (photo by Jon Gardiner)\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Gladfelter in her lab. (photo by Jon Gardiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cRNA, which folds in really interesting ways, is important to the selection process of who gets together in these droplets \u2014 and who is excluded,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Gladfelter and Weeks\u2019 labs partnered together on the research. Weeks is an expert on how single-stranded, ribbon-like <a href=\"http:\/\/college.unc.edu\/2013\/03\/07\/rnafoldingweeks\/\">RNA molecules are able to fold<\/a> into intricate patterns and structures.<\/p>\n<p>This work has implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases, according to Gladfelter. These liquid droplets occur under normal, healthy conditions, but through mutations, aging or stress, they become \u201cirreversible\u201d or \u201cstuck.\u201d At that point, they can\u2019t dissolve anymore, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some cases, these normally liquid droplets become more aggregated or hard; they don\u2019t dissolve,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the current hypothesis is those aggregates have implications for understanding Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease or ALS, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latest findings are helping researchers understand how the right components can get recruited to droplets so that cells can potentially avoid that transition to an aberrant, solid state.<\/p>\n<p>Gladfelter stresses that understanding how a cell functions, and what happens when things go <em>right,<\/em> is fundamental to discovering what happens when things go wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t understand what goes wrong until we develop a greater understanding of how things work and what the rules are in a \u2018normal\u2019 cell,\u201d said Gladfelter, who is an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbl.edu\/research\/mbl-fellows\/amy-gladfelter\/\">MBL Fellow<\/a> at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where some of the foundational work for the research took place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other UNC researchers involved in the research include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>From the Gladfelter lab:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>grad students:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Erin Langdon (lead author), Therese Gerbich,<\/p>\n<p>Grace McLaughlin (UNC \u201917)<\/p>\n<p><em>Postdoc:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jean Smith<\/p>\n<p><em>research scientist:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>John Crutchley<\/p>\n<p><strong>From Kevin Weeks lab:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>postdoc<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Chase \u00a0Weidmann<\/p>\n<p><em>Read more about this research in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbl.edu\/blog\/team-discovers-how-cells-can-control-composition-of-liquid-droplets\/\">MBL news story.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>By Kim Spurr<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New paper in Science shows that RNAs help certain molecules come together in liquid-like protected compartments, information that could have implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,29,33,17,21,34],"tags":[1040,274,24,339,25,1012,1014,36,939,39],"class_list":["post-24398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-media-news","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","category-news","category-news-archive","tag-amy-gladfelter","tag-biology","tag-carolina","tag-chemistry","tag-college-of-arts-sciences","tag-kevin-weeks","tag-rna","tag-unc","tag-unc-college","tag-unc-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48563,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24398\/revisions\/48563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}