Armaos, Alexandros, 1989-Zacco, ElsaSanchez de Groot, NataliaTartaglia, Gian Gaetano2021-03-172021-03-172021Armaos A, Zacco E, Sanchez de Groot N, Tartaglia GG. RNA-protein interactions: central players in coordination of regulatory networks. Bioessays. 2021 Feb;43(2):e2000118. DOI: 10.1002/bies.2020001180265-9247http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46818Changes in the abundance of protein and RNA molecules can impair the formation of complexes in the cell leading to toxicity and death. Here we exploit the information contained in protein, RNA and DNA interaction networks to provide a comprehensive view of the regulation layers controlling the concentration-dependent formation of assemblies in the cell. We present the emerging concept that RNAs can act as scaffolds to promote the formation ribonucleoprotein complexes and coordinate the post-transcriptional layer of gene regulation. We describe the structural and interaction network properties that characterize the ability of protein and RNA molecules to interact and phase separate in liquid-like compartments. Finally, we show that presence of structurally disordered regions in proteins correlate with the propensity to undergo liquid-to-solid phase transitions and cause human diseases. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/kfpqibsNfS0.application/pdfeng© 2020 Alexandros Armaos et al. BioEssays published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposesGenèticaProteïnesRNAinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000118info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess