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Shuttling of pre-mRNA binding proteins between nucleus and cytoplasm

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Abstract

RNA polymerase II transcripts, heterogeneous nuclear RNAs (hnRNAs), associate in the nucleus with specific proteins that bind premessenger RNA (hnRNP proteins)1,2 and with small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs)3#150;5. These hnRNA-hnRNP-snRNP complexes assemble on nascent transcripts and hnRNA is processed to mRNA in them6–8. HnRNP proteins have been localized to the nucleoplasm9–13 and their functions were presumed to be limited to nuclear events in mRNA biogenesis. It was proposed that an exchange of hnRNP for mRNA-binding proteins accompanies transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm1,14. We show here that several of the abundant hnRNP proteins, including Al, shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. HnRNP proteins may thus also have cytoplasmic functions. Furthermore, when in the cytoplasm, Al is bound to mRNA and RNA polymerase II transcription is necessary before it can return to the nucleus. We propose that the cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein complex of mRNA with hnRNP proteins is the substrate of nuclear–cytoplasmic transport of mRNA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104-6148, USA

    Serafm Piñol-Roma & Gideon Dreyfuss

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  1. Serafm Piñol-Roma
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  2. Gideon Dreyfuss
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Piñol-Roma, S., Dreyfuss, G. Shuttling of pre-mRNA binding proteins between nucleus and cytoplasm. Nature 355, 730–732 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/355730a0

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