Sutapa Chakrabarti

The RNA-binding protein tristetraprolin (TTP) is a potent activator of mRNA decay, specifically for transcripts bearing AU-rich elements (AREs) in their 3′-untranslated regions. TTP functions as a mediator for mRNA decay by interacting with the decay machinery and recruiting it to the target ARE-mRNA. In this study, we report a weak, but direct interaction between TTP and the human decapping enzyme DCP2, which impacts the stability of ARE transcripts. The TTP–DCP2 interaction is unusual as it involves intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of both binding partners. We show that the IDR of DCP2 has a propensity for oligomerization and liquid–liquid phase separation in vitro. Binding of TTP to DCP2 leads to its partitioning into phase-separated droplets formed by DCP2, suggesting that molecular crowding might facilitate the weak interaction between the two proteins and enable assembly of a decapping-competent mRNA–protein complex on TTP-bound transcripts in cells. Our studies underline the role of weak interactions in the cellular interaction network and their contribution towards cellular functionality.