Intrinsically Disordered Regions Form Nucleoli and Cajal Bodies While Fostering RNA Modification

One of the densest compartments in the cell is the dense fibrillar component (DFC) of the nucleolus, consisting mainly of nascent ribosomal RNA (rRNA), small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins (snoRNPs) and their chaperone Nopp140. How this biomolecular condensate is formed and what underlies its structure is poorly understood like that of most liquid-liquid phase separated condensates. Although we established that Nopp140 is important for the cohesiveness of the DFC and for rRNA modification, it is not known how this is achieved. Here we demonstrate that Nopp140 concentrates intrinsically disordered and nuclear localization signal (NLS)-rich protein regions (IDRs), including a newly identified RNA polymerase I C-terminal domain (CTD) of the RNA polymerase I associated factor PAF49. Altogether, this network forms the DFC, a liquid-liquid phase separated biomolecular condensate that fosters rRNA modification. This mechanism ensures near 100 percent modification efficiency at some 200 nucleotides in every one of the 10 million or so rRNAs per cell.