Thanks to recent innovative methodologies, key cellular processes such as replication or transcription can be visualized directly in situ in intact tissues. Many studies use so-called click iT chemistry where nascent DNA can be tracked by 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU), and nascent RNA by 5-ethynyl uridine (EU). While the labeling of replicating DNA by EdU has already been well established and further exploited in plants, the use of EU to reveal nascent RNA has not been developed to such an extent. In this article, we present a protocol for labeling of nucleolar RNA transcripts using EU and show that EU effectively highlights the nucleolus. The method is advantageous, because the need to prepare transgenic plants expressing fluorescently tagged nucleolar components when the nucleolus has to be visualized can be avoided.

• Klíčová slova
• Arabidopsis thaliana, click iT, nucleolus, nucleus, transcription,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Nucleoli are formed on the basis of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clusters called Nucleolus Organizer Regions (NORs). Each NOR contains multiple genes coding for RNAs of the ribosomal particles. The prominent components of the nucleolar ultrastructure, fibrillar centers (FC) and dense fibrillar components (DFC), together compose FC/DFC units. These units are centers of rDNA transcription by RNA polymerase I (pol I), as well as the early processing events, in which an essential role belongs to fibrillarin. Each FC/DFC unit probably corresponds to a single transcriptionally active gene. In this work, we transfected human-derived cells with GFP-RPA43 (subunit of pol I) and RFP-fibrillarin. Following changes of the fluorescent signals in individual FC/DFC units, we found two kinds of kinetics: 1) the rapid fluctuations with periods of 2-3 min, when the pol I and fibrillarin signals oscillated in anti-phase manner, and the intensities of pol I in the neighboring FC/DFC units did not correlate. 2) fluctuations with periods of 10 to 60 min, in which pol I and fibrillarin signals measured in the same unit did not correlate, but pol I signals in the units belonging to different nucleoli were synchronized. Our data indicate that a complex pulsing activity of transcription as well as early processing is common for ribosomal genes.

• Klíčová slova
• fibrillarin, fluctuation, pol I, rDNA, transcription pulsing,
• MeSH
• buněčné jadérko chemie   enzymologie   MeSH
• chromozomální proteiny, nehistonové chemie   metabolismus   MeSH
• DNA řízené RNA-polymerasy chemie   metabolismus   MeSH
• HeLa buňky MeSH
• imunohistochemie MeSH
• konfokální mikroskopie MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• chromozomální proteiny, nehistonové MeSH
• DNA řízené RNA-polymerasy MeSH
• fibrillarin MeSH Prohlížeč

The essential structural components of the nucleoli, Fibrillar Centers (FC) and Dense Fibrillar Components (DFC), together compose FC/DFC units, loci of rDNA transcription and early RNA processing. In the present study we followed cell cycle related changes of these units in 2 human sarcoma derived cell lines with stable expression of RFP-PCNA (the sliding clamp protein) and GFP-RPA43 (a subunit of RNA polymerase I, pol I) or GFP-fibrillarin. Correlative light and electron microscopy analysis showed that the pol I and fibrillarin positive nucleolar beads correspond to individual FC/DFC units. In vivo observations showed that at early S phase, when transcriptionally active ribosomal genes were replicated, the number of the units in each cell increased by 60-80%. During that period the units transiently lost pol I, but not fibrillarin. Then, until the end of interphase, number of the units did not change, and their duplication was completed only after the cell division, by mid G1 phase. This peculiar mode of reproduction suggests that a considerable subset of ribosomal genes remain transcriptionally silent from mid S phase to mitosis, but become again active in the postmitotic daughter cells.

• Klíčová slova
• FC/DFC units, cell cycle, nucleolus, rDNA, replication,
• MeSH
• buněčné jadérko metabolismus   MeSH
• HeLa buňky MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• S fáze MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1), which binds to sites of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) methylation, is primarily responsible for gene silencing and the formation of heterochromatin. We observed that HP1 beta is located in both the chromocenters and fibrillarin-positive nucleoli interiors. However, HP1 alpha and HP1 gamma occupied fibrillarin-positive compartments to a lesser extent, corresponding to the distinct levels of HP1 subtypes at the promoter of rDNA genes. Deficiency of histone methyltransferases SUV39h and/or inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACi) decreased HP1 beta and H3K9 trimethylation at chromocenters, but not in fibrillarin-positive regions that co-localized with RNA polymerase I. Similarly, SUV39h- and HDACi-dependent nucleolar rearrangement and inhibition of rDNA transcription did not affect the association between HP1 beta and fibrillarin. Moreover, the presence of HP1 beta in nucleoli is likely connected with transcription of ribosomal genes and with the role of fibrillarin in nucleolar processes.

• MeSH
• buněčné jadérko metabolismus   MeSH
• chromozomální proteiny, nehistonové metabolismus   MeSH
• fibroblasty metabolismus   MeSH
• kultivované buňky MeSH
• methyltransferasy metabolismus   MeSH
• myši MeSH
• represorové proteiny metabolismus   MeSH
• vazba proteinů MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• myši MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• Cbx1 protein, mouse MeSH Prohlížeč
• chromozomální proteiny, nehistonové MeSH
• fibrillarin MeSH Prohlížeč
• methyltransferasy MeSH
• represorové proteiny MeSH
• Suv39h1 protein, mouse MeSH Prohlížeč