RNA-Seeded Functional Amyloids Balance Growth and Survival

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Audas et al. (2016) report non-membrane-enclosed amyloid bodies (ABs) assembled in the nuclei of cells exposed to heat and low pH. Remarkably, ABs form not by liquid-to-liquid phase separation, implicated in RNA-seeded granule assembly, but by an amyloidogenic process that promotes a liquid-to-solid transition. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Audas et al. (2016) report non-membrane-enclosed amyloid bodies (ABs) assembled in the nuclei of cells exposed to heat and low pH. Remarkably, ABs form not by liquid-to-liquid phase separation, implicated in RNA-seeded granule assembly, but by an amyloidogenic process that promotes a liquid-to-solid transition.