Recruitment of mRNAs to P granules by gelation with intrinsically-disordered proteins (RNAseq datasets)

RNA granules are cellular condensates that contain RNAs and proteins. The mechanism that drive the recruitment of many mRNAs to RNA granules are not fully understood. Here we characterize the assembly and transcriptome of the germ (P) granules of C. elegans. We find that mRNAs are recruited into P granules by condensation with the intrinsically-disordered protein MEG-3. MEG-3 binds ~500 mRNAs in C. elegans embryos in a sequence-independent manner that favors mRNAs with low ribosome coverage. Translational stress causes additional mRNAs to localize to P granules and translational activation correlates with P granule exit for two mRNAs coding for germ cell fate regulators. MEG-3/RNA condensates assembled in vitro are gel-like and trap mRNAs in a non-dynamic state. Our observations reveal similarities between P granules and stress granules and identify gelation with intrinsically-disordered proteins as a sequence-independent mechanism to enrich low-translation mRNAs in RNA granules Overall design: 6 biological embryonic samples are included in this submission. It contains 3 samples from wild-type and 3 samples from meg-3meg4 mutant embryos