ISSN:
1615-6102
Keywords:
Chromosomal territories
;
Interchromosomal-domain compartment
;
Nuclear bodies
;
Nuclear deposition
;
Vimentin
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Summary Chromosome-specific probes and the development of adequate in situ hybridization techniques have allowed to directly visualize nuclear space occupied by individual chromosomes in interphase. Different from earlier concepts of chromatin organization it has thus been shown that interphase chromosomes indeed are restricted to distinct areas that have been named chromosomal territories. With regard to the space between the chromosomes, the specific staining of nascent transcripts, of elements of the splicing machinery as well as various nuclear bodies, and the progression of long intranuclear filaments, made from the giant protein TPR, into the nuclear interior led to a concept that this space may constitute a functional nuclear compartment. Therefore, the term interchromosomal-domain compartment was proposed in order to conceptionally accentuate it as a precisely structured entity. Here we discuss the properties of a “nuclear space shuttle”, an engineered version of the intermediate-filament protein vimentin fromXenopus laevis, that due to its temperature sensitivity can be “switched” back and forth between a filamentous and a granular, nuclear-body-type localization. Moreover, the particular domain structure of vimentin allows to fuse to it various polypeptides, including the green-fluorescent protein, without basically affecting the assembly properties of the chimeric proteins. With this type of tools the properties, dynamics, and extent of the interchromosomal-domain compartment are currently investigated.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01453444
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