P-bodies

P-bodies were first described in the scientific literature by Bashkirov et al. in 1997, in which they describe "small granules… discrete, prominent foci" as the cytoplasmic location of the mouse exoribonuclease mXrn1p. It wasn't until 2002 that a glimpse into the nature and importance of these cytoplasmic foci was published., when researchers demonstrated that multiple proteins involved with mRNA degradation localize to the foci. Their importance was recognized after experimental evidence was obtained pointing to P-bodies as the sites of mRNA degradation in the cell. The evidence being that GW182 and Ago2, both associated with miRNA gene silencing, are found exclusively in multivesicular bodies or GW-bodies and are not localized to P-bodies. Also of note, P-bodies are not equivalent to stress granules and they contain largely non-overlapping proteins. ==Associations with microRNA==

MicroRNA (miRNA) mediated repression occurs in two ways, either by translational repression or stimulating mRNA decay. miRNA recruit the RISC complex to the mRNA to which they are bound. The link to P-bodies comes by the fact that many, if not most, of the proteins necessary for miRNA gene silencing are localized to P-bodies, as reviewed by Kulkarni et al. (2010). These proteins include, but are not limited to, the scaffold protein GW182, Argonaute (Ago), decapping enzymes and RNA helicases. The current evidence points toward P-bodies as being scaffolding centers of miRNA function, especially due to the evidence that a knock down of GW182 disrupts P-body formation. However, there remain many unanswered questions about P-bodies and their relationship to miRNA activity. Specifically, it is unknown whether there is a context dependent (stress state versus normal) specificity to the P-body's mechanism of action. Based on the evidence that P-bodies sometimes are the site of mRNA decay and sometimes the mRNA can exit the P-bodies and re-initiate translation, the question remains of what controls this switch. Another ambiguous point to be addressed is whether the proteins that localize to P-bodies are actively functioning in the miRNA gene silencing process or whether they are merely on standby. == Protein composition ==

In 2017, a new method to purify processing bodies was published. They engineered cells to express several processing body-localized proteins as fusion proteins with the BirA* enzyme. When the cells are incubated with biotin, BirA* will biotinylate proteins that are nearby, thus tagging the proteins within processing bodies with a biotin tag. Streptavidin was then used to isolate the tagged proteins and mass spectrometry to identify them. Using this approach, Youn et al. identified 42 proteins that localize to processing bodies. == References ==