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Small bristles, the Drosophila ortholog of NXF-1, is essential for mRNA export throughout development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2002

GAVIN S. WILKIE ,
VITALY ZIMYANIN ,
RUTH KIRBY ,
CHRISTOPHER KOREY ,
HELEN FRANCIS-LANG ,
DAVID VAN VACTOR  and
ILAN DAVIS
GAVIN S. WILKIE
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, Scotland, United Kingdom Present address: MRC Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Crewe Road, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, Scotland, United Kingdom.
VITALY ZIMYANIN
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, Scotland, United Kingdom Present address: Wellcome Trust/CRC Centre for Developmental Biology, Tennis Court Road, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QR, United Kingdom.
RUTH KIRBY
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, Scotland, United Kingdom
CHRISTOPHER KOREY
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
HELEN FRANCIS-LANG
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA Present address: Exelixis, Inc., 170 Harbor Avenue, P.O. Box 511 S., San Francisco, California 94083, USA.
DAVID VAN VACTOR
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
ILAN DAVIS
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, Scotland, United Kingdom
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Abstract

We identified a temperature-sensitive allele of small bristles (sbr), the Drosophila ortholog of human TAP/NXF-1 and yeast Mex67, in a screen for mutants defective in mRNA export. We show that sbr is essential for the nuclear export of all mRNAs tested in a wide range of tissues and times in development. High resolution and sensitive in situ hybridization detect the rapid accumulation of individual mRNA species in sbr mutant nuclei in particles that are distinct from nascent transcript foci and resemble wild-type export intermediates. The particles become more numerous and intense with increasing time at the restrictive temperature and are exported very rapidly after shifting back to the permissive temperature. The mRNA export block is not due indirectly to a defect in splicing, nuclear protein import, or aberrant nuclear ultrastructure, suggesting that in sbr mutants, mRNA is competent for export but fails to dock or translocate through NPCs. We conclude that NXF-1 is an essential ubiquitous export factor for all mRNAs throughout development in higher eukaryotes.

Keywords

Drosophilaintracellular mRNA localizationMex67mRNA nuclear exportNXF-1small bristles (sbr)TAP
Type
Research Article
Information
RNA , Volume 7 , Issue 12 , December 2001 , pp. 1781 - 1792
Copyright
2001 RNA Society

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