An assessment of some methodological criticisms of studies of RNA efflux from isolated nuclei

Abstract

RNA efflux from isolated nuclei can be studied either as a means of elucidating the general mechanism of nucleo-cytoplasmic RNA transport, or as part of an investigation of the processing and utilization of particular gene transcripts. The present paper describes an assessment of three methodological criticisms of RNA-efflux measurements that are made for the former reason: for such measurements, it is sufficient to show that the post-incubation supernatant RNA is similar overall to homologous cytoplasmic mRNA, rather than to nuclear RNA, that is nevertheless of intranuclear origin, and that alterations to the medium during experiments do not markedly perturb this general nuclear restriction. The results seem to justify the following conclusions. (1) Although degradation of the nuclear RNA occurs during incubation in vitro, this process does not account for the appearance of RNA in the postnuclear supernatant. The degradation can be largely prevented by the addition of serine-proteinase inhibitors without altering the RNA efflux rate. (2) Some adsorption of labelled cytoplasmic RNA to the nuclear surface occurs during both isolation and incubation of the nuclei, and some desorption occurs during incubation. However, these effects introduce errors of less than 10% into the measurements of efflux rates. (3) Exogenous acidic polymers, including polyribonucleotides, disrupt nuclei and increase the apparent RNA efflux rate by causing leakage of nuclear contents. However, this effect can largely be overcome by including the nuclear stabilizers spermidine, Ca2+ and Mn2+ in the medium. In terms of this assessment, it appears that RNA efflux from isolated nuclei in media containing nuclear stabilizers serves as a reasonable model for transport in vivo.