Cytoplasmic bodies

Cytoplasmic bodies is a collective term for distinct granules or foci that are visible in the cytosol. These include ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes like Processing bodies (P-bodies), which are known to contain translationally inactive mRNA and factors involved in mRNA turnover, and stress granules, which contain mRNA stalled in translation initiation, but also a number of less well characterized assemblies. Both P bodies and stress granules are membrane-less organelles, which behave like liquid droplets and assemble as a result of a process termed liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Similar to membrane bound organelles, these condensates enable compartmentalization, acceleration and tuning of cellular processes.

Immunofluorescent staining

Cytoplasmic bodies can be seen as small granular assemblies in the cytosol. These are difficult to distinguish from membrane-bound vesicles, but they are usually slightly bigger and occur in lower numbers compared to vesicles.

Read more about the proteome of cytoplasmic bodies as a substructure of the cytosol.