Published online at: Science 10.1126/science.1061216, and in print in Science, vol. 293, no. 5532, pp. 1139-1142 (August 10, 2001):


Submitted on March 30, 2001
Accepted on June 6, 2001
Published online on June 21, 2001
Published in print on August 10, 2001

"Coupled Transcription and Translation Within Nuclei of Mammalian Cells".
Francisco J. Iborra 1,Dean A. Jackson 2, Peter R. Cook 1*

1 Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RE UK.
2 Department of Biomolecular Sciences, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: peter.cook@path.ox.ac.uk.


Abstract:

It is widely assumed that the vital processes of transcription and translation are spatially separated in eukaryotes, and that no translation occurs in nuclei. We localized translation sites by incubating permeabilized mammalian cells with [3H]lysine, or lysyl-tRNA tagged with biotin or BODIPY; while most nascent polypeptides were cytoplasmic, some were found in discrete nuclear sites known as transcription 'factories'. Some of this nuclear translation also depends on concurrent transcription by RNA polymerase II. This coupling is simply explained if nuclear ribosomes translate nascent transcripts as those transcripts emerge from still-engaged RNA polymerases, much as they do in bacteria.


Additional References:

1. Wells WA, "Translation in the Nucleus", J. Cell Biol. vol. 154, no. 1, p. 12 (July 9, 2001).

2. Hentze MW, "Believe It or Not -- Translation in the Nucleus", Science 293: 1058-1059 (August 10, 2001).

3. Brachet J, "Biochemical Cytology", Academic Press Inc., New York, 1957, pp. 97-105 and 133-135.

4. Crick F, "Central Dogma of Molecular Biology", Nature 227: 561-563 (August 8, 1970).

5. "Metabolism and Morphology of Ribonucleoprotein Particles from the Cell Nucleus of Lymphocytes".

6. "In Vitro Incorporation of Amino Acids into the Proteins of Isolated Nuclear Ribosomes",

7. "Nuclear Ribosomes and RNA-RNA Duplexes".

8. Frenster JH, "DNA as a Direct Template for Protein Synthesis", Editor's Commentary, January 1, 2004.
 
 


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