Composition of ribonucleic acid from various parts of spider oocytes

The exon junction complex factor Y14 is dynamic in the nucleus of the beetle Tribolium castaneum during late oogenesis

Background

The oocyte chromosomes of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, are gathered into a knot, forming a karyosphere at the diplotene stage of meiotic prophase. Chromatin rearrangement, which is a characteristic feature of oocyte maturation, is well documented. The T. castaneum karyosphere is surrounded by a complex extrachromosomal structure termed the karyosphere capsule. The capsule contains the vast majority of oocyte RNA. We have previously shown using a BrUTP assay that oocyte chromosomes in T. castaneum maintain residual transcription up to the very end of oocyte maturation. Karyosphere transcription requires evidently not only transcription factors but also mRNA processing factors, including the components of the exon junction complex with its core component, the splicing factor Y14. We employed a gene engineering approach with injection of mRNA derived from the Myc-tagged Y14 plasmid-based construct in order to monitor the newly synthesized fusion protein in the oocyte nuclei.

Results

Our preliminary data have been presented as a brief correspondence elsewhere. Here, we provide a full-length article including immunoelectron-microscopy localization data on Y14–Myc distribution in the nucleus of previtellogenic and vitellogenic oocytes. The injections of the fusion protein Y14–Myc mRNA into the oocytes showed a dynamic pattern of the protein distribution. At the previtellogenic stage, there are two main locations for the protein: SC35 domains (the analogues of interchromatin granule clusters or nuclear speckles) and the karyosphere capsule. At the vitellogenic stage, SC35 domains were devoid of labels, and Y14–Myc was found in the perichromatin region of the karyosphere, presumably at the places of residual transcription. We show that karyosphere formation is accompanied by the movement of a nuclear protein while the residual transcription occurs during genome inactivation.

Conclusions

Our data indicate that the karyosphere capsule, being a destination site for a protein involved in mRNA splicing and export, is not only a specializes part of nuclear matrix separating the karyosphere from the products of chromosome activity, as believed previously, but represents a special nuclear compartment involved in the processes of gene expression in the case the karyosphere retains residual transcription activity.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13039-017-0342-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Kinetics of nucleoside incorporation into nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA

HeLa and conjunctiva tissue culture cells were incubated for various intervals with tritiated nucleosides and the incorporation into RNA was localized in different parts of the cell by means of autoradiography. In order to obtain quantitative measurements of incorporation from grain count data the influence of cell geometry on the absorption of the tritium beta ray was considered. Relative correction factors, E = g/g*, relating an idealized grain count in the absence of absorption, g, to the actual grain count, g*, were derived for the different cell compartments. For the average HeLa cell the factors for the nucleolus, n, non-nucleolar parts of the nucleus, N, and the cytoplasm, C, are in the ratio E(n)/E(N)/E(C)= 2.3/1.6/1.0. The kinetics of incorporation for cytidine and adenosine are similar. The n and N curves are characterized by a rapid rise and early saturation, whereas the C curves show an appreciable lag and no evidence of saturation for intervals as long as one generation time. Estimates of the relative amounts of RNA in each compartment were obtained from ultraviolet micro absorption measurements and used together with the kinetic data to calculate specific activities. For incubation periods of short duration the ratio of specific activities n/N for cytidine is approximately twice that for adenosine. Three hypotheses for the mechanism of ribonucleoside incorporation and RNA synthesis are discussed, and arguments favoring a transport of RNA or an RNA by-product from the nucleus and nucleolus to the cytoplasm are presented.

Experimentally induced changes in the base composition of the ribonucleic acids of isolated nerve cells and their oligodendroglial cells

The effect of tricyano-amino-propene, a dimer of malononitrile, on the base composition of the RNA in isolated Deiters' nerve cells and their oligodendroglial cells has been studied using a microelectrophoretic method. Tri-a-p in a dose of 20 mg/kg has the effect of increasing the RNA and protein content per nerve cell by 25 per cent and decreasing the glia RNA by 45 per cent. The RNA base composition of the nerve cells from the control animals differs from that of their glial cells. The guanine of the nerve cell is significantly higher than that of the glia, but the content of cytosine is higher in the glia than in the RNA of nerve cell. The cytosine of nerve cells decreased significantly after tri-a-p administration. In the glial cells the cytosine showed a 20 per cent increase, and the guanine a 25 per cent decrease. Tri-a-p sharpened the difference in RNA composition already existing between the control nerve cells and their glial cells by almost 300 per cent for the guanine and by 400 per cent for the cytosine. The chemical and functional relationship between the nerve cell and its oligodendroglial cells is discussed.

Ribonucleic acids from animal cells

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