To study VSV entry and the fate of incoming matrix (M) protein during virus uncoating we used recombinant viruses encoding M proteins with a C-terminal tetracysteine tag that could be fluorescently labeled using biarsenical (Lumio) compounds. We found that uncoating occurs early in the endocytic pathway and is inhibited by expression of dominant-negative (DN) Rab5, but is not inhibited by DN-Ra...

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are enormous macromolecular structures that mediate the active exchange of proteins and RNPs between the nucleus and cytoplasm. Recent work has resulted in a windfall of identified NPC polypeptides, many with unique sequences. Several of the proteins have been shown to be part of extended cytoplasmic and nucleoplasmic NPC filaments. Biochemical, structural and gene...

Protein-protein interactions through short linear motifs (SLiMs) are an emerging concept that is different from interactions between globular domains. The SLiMs encode a functional interaction interface in a short (three to ten residues) poorly conserved sequence. This characteristic makes them much more likely to arise/disappear spontaneously via mutations, and they may be more evolutionarily ...

X-linked dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a rare bone marrow failure syndrome caused by mostly missense mutations in the pseudouridine synthase NAP57 (dyskerin/Cbf5). As part of H/ACA ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), NAP57 is important for the biogenesis of ribosomes, spliceosomal small nuclear RNPs, microRNAs and the telomerase RNP. DC mutations concentrate in the N- and C-termini of NAP57 but not in ...

The lymphotropic Herpesvirus saimiri (HVS) causes acute leukemia, T-cell lymphoma, and death in New World monkeys. HVS encodes seven small RNAs (HSURs) of unknown function. The HSURs acquire host Sm proteins and assemble Sm cores similar to those found on the spliceosomal small nuclear RNPs (snRNPs). Here we show that, like host snRNPs, HSURs use the SMN (survival of motor neurons) complex to a...

Yeast telomerase, the enzyme that adds a repeated DNA sequence to the ends of the chromosomes, consists of a 1157- nucleotide RNA (TLC1) plus several protein subunits: the telomerase reverse transcriptase Est2p, the regulatory subunit Est1p, the nonhomologous end-joining heterodimer Ku, and the seven Sm proteins involved in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) maturation. The RNA subunit provides the templa...

When the nuclear matrix from bovine lymphocytes was digested by RNase-depleted trypsin, the bulk of the matrix proteins, except actin, were hydrolyzed. The digestion left rapidly sedimented spherical structures (trypsin-treated nuclear matrix), which mainly were composed of actin (Nakayasu, H. and K. Ueda. Exp. Cell Res. 143, 55-62, 1983). Almost all the small nuclear RNAs of the original nucle...

Eukaryotes and archaea use two sets of specialized ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) to carry out sequence-specific methylation and pseudouridylation of RNA, the two most abundant types of modifications of cellular RNAs. In eukaryotes, these protein-RNA complexes localize to the nucleolus and are called small nucleolar RNPs (snoRNPs), while in archaea they are known as small RNPs (sRNP). The C/D class ...