Plants use molecular mechanisms mediated by biomolecular condensates to integrate environmental cues with development.

This review highlights recent literature on biomolecular condensates in plant development and discusses challenges for fully dissecting their functional roles. Plant developmental biology has been inundated with descriptive examples of biomolecular condensate formation, but it is only recently that mechanistic understanding has been forthcoming. Here, we discuss recent examples of potential roles biomolecular condensates play at different stages of the plant life cycle. We group these examples based on putative molecular functions, including sequestering interacting components, enhancing dwell time, and interacting with cytoplasmic biophysical properties in response to environmental change. We explore how these mechanisms could modulate plant development in response to environmental inputs and discuss challenges and opportunities for further research into deciphering molecular mechanisms to better understand the diverse roles that biomolecular condensates exert on life.

Processing bodies control the selective translation for optimal development of Arabidopsis young seedlings.

Germinated plant seeds buried in soil undergo skotomorphogenic development before emergence to reach the light environment. Young seedlings transitioning from dark to light undergo photomorphogenic development. During photomorphogenesis, light alters the transcriptome and enhances the translation of thousands of mRNAs during the dark-to-light transition in Arabidopsis young seedlings. About 1,500 of these mRNAs have comparable abundance before and after light treatment, which implies widespread translational repression in dark-grown seedlings. Processing bodies (p-bodies), the cytoplasmic granules found in diverse organisms, can balance the storage, degradation, and translation of mRNAs. However, the function of p-bodies in translation control remains largely unknown in plants. Here we found that an Arabidopsis mutant defective in p-body formation (Decapping 5; dcp5-1) showed reduced fitness under both dark and light conditions. Comparative transcriptome and translatome analyses of wild-type and dcp5-1 seedlings revealed that p-bodies can attenuate the premature translation of specific mRNAs in the dark, including those encoding enzymes for protochlorophyllide synthesis and PIN-LIKES3 for auxin-dependent apical hook opening. When the seedlings protrude from soil, light perception by photoreceptors triggers a reduced accumulation of p-bodies to release the translationally stalled mRNAs for active translation of mRNAs encoding proteins needed for photomorphogenesis. Our data support a key role for p-bodies in translation repression, an essential mechanism for proper skotomorphogenesis and timely photomorphogenesis in seedlings.

Plant dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase optimizes light-regulated growth and development in Arabidopsis.

Light controls vegetative and reproductive development of plants. For a plant, sensing the light input properly ensures coordination with the ever-changing environment. Previously, we found that LIGHT-REGULATED WD1 (LWD1) and LWD2 regulate the circadian clock and photoperiodic flowering. Here, we identified Arabidopsis YET ANOTHER KINASE1 (AtYAK1), an evolutionarily conserved protein and a member of dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinases (DYRKs), as an interacting protein of LWDs. Our study revealed that AtYAK1 is an important regulator for various light responses, including the circadian clock, photomorphogenesis and reproductive development. AtYAK1 could antagonize the function of LWDs in regulating the circadian clock and photoperiodic flowering. By examining phenotypes of atyak1, we found that AtYAK1 regulated light-induced period-length shortening and photomorphogenic development. Moreover, AtYAK1 mediated plant fertility especially under inferior light conditions including low light and short-day length. This study discloses a new regulator connecting environmental light to plant growth.

Dynamics and Functions of Stress Granules and Processing Bodies in Plants.

RNA granules, such as stress granules and processing bodies, can balance the storage, degradation, and translation of mRNAs in diverse eukaryotic organisms. The sessile nature of plants demands highly versatile strategies to respond to environmental fluctuations. In this review, we discuss recent findings of the dynamics and functions of these RNA granules in plants undergoing developmental reprogramming or responding to environmental stresses. Special foci include the dynamic assembly, disassembly, and regulatory roles of these RNA granules in determining the fate of mRNAs.

Orchestration of Processing Body Dynamics and mRNA Decay in Arabidopsis Immunity.

Proper transcriptome reprogramming is critical for hosts to launch an effective defense response upon pathogen attack. How immune-related genes are regulated at the posttranscriptional level remains elusive. We demonstrate here that P-bodies, the non-membranous cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein foci related to 5'-to-3' mRNA decay, are dynamically modulated in plant immunity triggered by microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). The DCP1-DCP2 mRNA decapping complex, a hallmark of P-bodies, positively regulates plant MAMP-triggered responses and immunity against pathogenic bacteria. MAMP-activated MAP kinases directly phosphorylate DCP1 at the serine237 residue, which further stimulates its interaction with XRN4, an exonuclease executing 5'-to-3' degradation of decapped mRNA. Consequently, MAMP treatment potentiates DCP1-dependent mRNA decay on a specific group of MAMP-downregulated genes. Thus, the conserved 5'-to-3' mRNA decay elicited by the MAMP-activated MAP kinase cascade is an integral part of plant immunity. This mechanism ensures a rapid posttranscriptional downregulation of certain immune-related genes that may otherwise negatively impact immunity.