Lucia Carol Strader, Professor of Biology, and Associate Professor of Cell Biology, at Duke University School of Medicine, will give a talk titled, "The disorder of transcription: Towards a molecular understanding of transcriptional control."

Zoom link: https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/j/91032629703. Meeting ID:  910 3262 9703. Passcode: ASRC+CCNY

ABSTRACT

Transcriptional regulation by AUXIN RESPONSE FACTORs (ARFs) plays a pivotal role in plant development. ARF activity is attenuated by formation of condensates through phase separation. ARFs, particularly ARF7 and ARF19, exhibit nucleo-cytoplasmic partitioning, which is crucial for controlling transcriptional responses to auxin in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the cytoplasm, ARF condensates are formed via polymerization of their PB1 domains, driven by intrinsic disorder and multivalency, whereas in the nucleus, condensates are largely absent. This selective condensation reveals an interplay between passive concentration-dependent processes and active transport mechanisms along the actin cytoskeleton, mediated by myosin motors. Our findings suggest that active motility enhances ARF-driven phase separation, influencing both condensate dynamics and transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, we developed a high-throughput platform to identify ARF activation domains, which we then employed to identify all Arabidopsis activation domains at scale to uncover the molecular underpinnings of transcriptional machinery recruitment. Understanding these processes in the ARFs offers insights into how intrinsic disorder regulate transcription more broadly.