大背景：How aerobic organisms exploit inevitably generated but potentially dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS) to benefit normal life is a fundamental biological question. 

小背景：Locally accumulated ROS have been reported to prime stem cell differentiation. 

提出问题：However, the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear.

主要研究：Here, we reveal that developmentally produced H2O2 in plant shoot apical meristem (SAM) triggers reversible protein phase separation of TERMINATING FLOWER (TMF), a transcription factor that times flowering transition in the tomato by repressing pre-maturation of SAM. 

结果1-TMF-氧化还原-相分离：Cysteine residues within TMF sense cellular redox to form disulfide bonds that concatenate multiple TMF molecules and elevate the amount of intrinsically disordered regions to drive phase separation. 

结果2-相分离-TMF-AN：Oxidation triggered phase separation enables TMF to bind and sequester the promoter of a floral identity gene ANANTHA to repress its expression. 

结论：The reversible transcriptional condensation via redox-regulated phase separation endows aerobic organisms with the flexibility of gene control in dealing with developmental cues.

好氧生物如何利用哪些不可避免产生、但又存在潜在危险的活性氧物质（ROS）来造福于正常的生命活动，这是一个重要的生物学问题。有研究显示，局部积累的ROS能够促进干细胞的分化。但是，潜在的分子机制还不清楚。本文中，作者发现发育过程中在茎尖分生组织SAM产生的过氧化氢会诱导TMF的可逆蛋白相分离，TMF在番茄中是一个通过抑制SAM提早成熟，从而确保成花转变时间的转录因子。TMF内的半胱氨酸残基感知细胞的氧化还原状态，形成可以连接多个TMF分子的二硫键，增加本质无序区域的数量，从而驱动相分离。氧化诱导的相分离，使得TMF能够结合并隔离开花决定基因AN的启动子，抑制该基因的表达。通过氧化还原调节相分离的可逆转录凝聚物，赋予好氧生物响应发育信号时控制基因表达的灵活性。