Properties of repression condensates in living Ciona embryos

Abstract

While recent studies suggest that transcriptional activators form condensates at active loci, less is known about the distribution of repressor proteins. Here, the authors develop an expression assay in living Ciona embryos and visualize puncta of Hes repressors, with the Groucho/TLE corepressor, observing that the Hes.a/Gro puncta have the properties of viscous liquid droplets that undergo limited fusion events due to association with DNA.