P-bodies and their functions during mRNA cell cycle: mini-review

Abstract

P-bodies (processing bodies) are observed in different organisms such as yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans and mammals. A typical eukaryotic cell contains several types of spatially formed granules, such as P-bodies, stress granules and a variety of ribonucleoprotein bodies. These microdomains play important role in mRNA processing, including RNA interference, repression of translation and mRNA decay. The P-bodies components as well as stress granules may play an important role in host defense against viral infection. The complete set of P-bodies protein elements is still poor known. They contain conserved protein core limited to different organisms or to stress status of the cell. P-bodies are related also to some neuronal mRNA granules as well as to maternal RNA granules or male germ cell granules. In this mini-review, we focus on the structure of P-bodies and their function in the mRNA utilization and processing because of the high mRNA's dynamics between different cellular compartments and its key role in modulation of gene expression.