The nucleolus is a mechanosensitive condensate that adapts ribosome biogenesis to mechanical forces

Abstract

Intracellular compartmentalization is fundamental to cellular organization, yet mechanobiology has been largely understood through membrane-delimited structures and associated signaling pathways. Whether mechanical forces directly regulate biomolecular condensates, which organize many core cellular functions, remains largely unknown. This question is particularly relevant for the nucleolus, a prominent nuclear condensate that coordinates ribosome biogenesis and is known to remodel in response to diverse biochemical perturbations, placing it at the interface between cellular state and biosynthetic control. Here, we show that mechanical compression remodels nucleolar organization and reduces (ribosomal DNA) rDNA transcription, and identify nucleolin as a key mediator of this adaptive response. Compression induces rapid and reversible redistribution of nucleolin from the nucleolus to the nucleoplasm, accompanied by reduced occupancy at rDNA promoter regions and changes in rDNA transcription and precursor rRNA processing. The nucleolar response occurs independently of classical post-translational regulation of nucleolin and instead depends on the rate of nuclear deformation, with nucleolar organization and function scaling with nuclear volume loss, supporting a mechanism of biophysical regulation. Together, our findings establish the nucleolus as a mechanosensitive condensate and reveal dual regulation of ribosome biogenesis by mechanical compression, through rapid nucleolin-based biophysical adaptation followed by slower epigenetic remodeling.