Nucleolar targeting of proteins by the tandem array of basic amino acid stretches identified in the RNA polymerase I-associated factor PAF49.

There is accumulating evidence to indicate that the regulation of subnuclear compartmentalization plays important roles in cellular processes. The RNA polymerase I-associated factor PAF49 has been shown to accumulate in the nucleolus in growing cells, but disperse into the nucleoplasm in growth-arrested cells. Serial deletion analysis revealed that amino acids 199-338 were necessary for the nucleolar localization of PAF49. Combinatorial point mutation analysis indicated that the individual basic amino acid stretches (BS) within the central (BS1-4) and the C-terminal (BS5 and 6) regions may cooperatively confer the nucleolar localization of PAF49. Addition of the basic stretches in tandem to a heterologous protein, such as the interferon regulatory factor-3, translocated the tagged protein into the nucleolus, even in the presence of an intrinsic nuclear export sequence. Thus, tandem array of the basic amino acid stretches identified here functions as a dominant nucleolar targeting sequence.