{"doi":"10.1101/2025.09.24.678427","title":"eIF4E assembly into <i>C. elegans</i> germ granules is essential for its repressive function","abstract":"Abstract Metazoan germ cells form intracellular germ granules, cytoplasmic RNA-protein condensates that contain a variety of RNAs and proteins essential for germline identity, maintenance, and fertility. P granules are a type of C. elegans germ granule proposed to be sites of mRNA repression. Proper P granule assembly is dependent on PGL-1 and its granule-forming protein relatives. Numerous RNA-binding proteins localize to P granules, like the eIF4E mRNA cap binding homolog, IFE-1. IFE-1 directly interacts with PGL-1 in vivo and in vitro. The molecular function of P granules remains enigmatic. Here, PGL-1 was molecularly dissected in vivo to determine protein regions required for P granule assembly, binding partner recruitment, and germ cell development. A specific region in the PGL-1 C-terminus was necessary and sufficient for IFE-1 recruitment to P granules and for fertility. IFE-1 RNA targets were identified, and reporters of top gene targets were repressed in the adult germline. This repression was dependent on PGL-1 and its IFE-1 binding peptide. These findings provide evidence that IFE-1 and P granules are a factor and site of mRNA repression, respectively. This repression required IFE-1 assembly into P granules, supporting the model that RNA-protein condensate assembly is necessary for its biological and biochemical functions.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":575824,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9562,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1191920,"name":"Christopher Borchers","orcid":"0000-0002-2887-2017","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":312031,"name":"Boyoon Yang","orcid":"0000-0001-6122-4401","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1467644,"name":"Becky Boyd","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":312032,"name":"Heather A. Hundley","orcid":"0000-0002-9106-9016","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":677917,"name":"Scott Takeo Aoki","orcid":"0000-0002-1100-4600","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1191919,"name":"Carmen Herrera Sandoval","orcid":"0000-0002-3292-6372","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":74,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:52.712371Z","pmid":"41040297","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}