Let Σ be a σ-algebra of subsets of a set Ω and $B(\Sigma)$ be the Banach space of all bounded Σ-measurable scalar functions on Ω. Let $\tau(B(\Sigma),ca(\Sigma))$ denote the natural Mackey topology on $B(\Sigma)$. It is shown that a linear operator T from $B(\Sigma)$ to a Banach space E is Bochner representable if and only if T is a nuclear operator between the locally convex space $(B(\Sigma),\tau(B(\Sigma),ca(\Sigma)))$ and the Banach space E. We derive a formula for the trace of a Bochner representable operator $T:B({\cal B} o)\rightarrow B({\cal B} o)$ generated by a function $f\in L^1({\cal B} o, C(\Omega))$, where Ω is a compact Hausdorff space.

Let $X$ be a Banach space and let $Y$ be a closed subspace of a Banach space $Z$. The following theorem is proved. Assume that $X^*$ or $Z^*$ has the approximation property. If there exists a bounded linear extension operator from $Y^*$ to $Z^*$, then any bounded linear operator $T:X\rightarrow Y$ is nuclear whenever $T$ is nuclear from $X$ to $Z$. The particular case of the theorem with $Z=Y^{**}$ is due to Grothendieck and Oja and Reinov. Numerous applications are presented. For instance, it is shown that a bounded linear operator $T$ from an arbitrary Banach space $X$ to an $\mathcal{L}_\infty$-space $Y$ is nuclear whenever $T$ is nuclear from $X$ to some Banach space $Z$ containing $Y$ as a subspace.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 46B20; 46B28; 47B10