Nuclear organization of pre-mRNA splicing factors and their substrates

Previous studies from our laboratory as well as other laboratories have shown that a variety of pre-mRNA splicing factors are localized to a subnuclear speckled domain when mammalian cells are immunolabeled with antibodies against these pre-mRNA splicing factors. At the electron microscopic level the speckled pattern is composed of both interchromatin granule clusters and perichromatin fibrils. A large body of evidence has accumulated from both our laboratory and other laboratories which has suggested that the perichromatin fibrils represent nascent transcripts and the interchromatin granule clusters represent storage and/or assembly sites for pre-mRNA splicing factors. The majority of substrates for these splicing factors are pre-mRNAs which contain a poly(A) tail of approximately 200-300 nucleotides. During the past year we have studied the distribution of poly(A)+ RNA in the mammalian cell nucleus and its transport through nuclear pores by fluorescence and electron microscopic in situ hybridization. Poly(A)+ RNA was detected in the nucleus as a speckled pattern which we have found to totally colocalize with pre-mRNA splicing factors at interchromatin granule clusters and perichromatin fibrils.