GSBS Student Publications
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Cell Biology
Date
12-1-1995
Document Type
Article
Medical Subject Headings
Actins; Albumins; Cell Nucleus; Cells, Cultured; Collagen; Fibroblasts; Heart; Humans; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Lung; Myosin Heavy Chains; Neurotensin; Nuclear Envelope; Nuclear Proteins; RNA Precursors; RNA Splicing; *Ribonucleoproteins; Skin; Skin Physiology; Spliceosomes; Transcription, Genetic
Disciplines
Cell Biology | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
This work demonstrates a highly nonrandom distribution of specific genes relative to nuclear domains enriched in splicing factors and poly(A)+ RNA, and provides evidence for the direct involvement of these in pre-mRNA metabolism. As investigated in hundreds of diploid fibroblasts, human collagen I alpha 1 and beta-actin DNA/RNA showed a very high degree of spatial association with SC-35 domains, whereas three nontranscribed genes, myosin heavy chain, neurotensin, and albumin, showed no such preferential association. Collagen I alpha 1 RNA accumulates within the more central region of the domain, whereas beta-actin RNA localizes at the periphery. A novel approach revealed that collagen RNA tracks are polarized, with the entire gene at one end, on the edge of the domain, and the RNA extending into the domain. Intron 26 is spliced within the RNA track at the domain periphery. Transcriptional inhibition studies show both the structure of the domain and the gene's relationship to it are not dependent upon the continued presence of accumulated collagen RNA, and that domains remaining after inhibition are not just storage sites. Results support a model reconciling light and electron microscopic observations which proposes that transcription of some specific genes occurs at the border of domains, which may also function in the assembly or distribution of RNA metabolic components. In contrast to the apparently random dispersal of total undefined hnRNA synthesis through interdomain space, transcription and splicing for some genes occurs preferentially at specific sites, and a high degree of individual pre-mRNA metabolism is compartmentalized with discrete SC-35 domains.
Rights and Permissions
Citation: J Cell Biol. 1995 Dec;131(6 Pt 2):1635-47. Link to article on publisher's website
DOI of Published Version
10.1083/jcb.131.6.1635
Related Resources
Journal Title
The Journal of cell biology
PubMed ID
8557734
Repository Citation
Xing, Yigong P.; Johnson, Carol V.; Moen, Phillip T.; McNeil, John A.; and Lawrence, Jeanne B., "Nonrandom gene organization: structural arrangements of specific pre-mRNA transcription and splicing with SC-35 domains" (1995). GSBS Student Publications. 745.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_sp/745