Paraspeckles are membraneless organelles, conglomerations of protein and RNA formed and maintained by phase separation dynamics:
My hope for paraspeckle biology is that we will one day have a complete molecular model of a paraspeckle, down to the atomic level, with a full suite of molecular tools to break it down and build it up. With a better understanding of why cells make paraspeckles, especially when stressed, we could in theory use these tools therapeutically to modulate the structures in different diseases.
Archa Fox, “What Paraspeckles Can Teach Us About Basic Cell Biology” at The Scientist
Of course, paraspeckles just happened randomly (“There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows.” Darwin, “Life and Letters,” i, p. 278). Even though they somehow work seamlessly with everything else. So seamlessly that we didn’t know about them until recently.
Follow UD News at Twitter!