Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avenida Del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340, 8320000, Santiago, Chile.
Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 6624, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Epigenetics Chromatin. 2021 Nov 24;14(1):51. doi: 10.1186/s13072-021-00425-4.
Nuclear processes such as transcription and RNA maturation can be impacted by subnuclear compartmentalization in condensates and nuclear bodies. Here, we characterize the nature of nuclear granules formed by REST corepressor 2 (RCOR2), a nuclear protein essential for pluripotency maintenance and central nervous system development.
Using biochemical approaches and high-resolution microscopy, we reveal that RCOR2 is localized in nuclear speckles across multiple cell types, including neurons in the brain. RCOR2 forms complexes with nuclear speckle components such as SON, SRSF7, and SRRM2. When cells are exposed to chemical stress, RCOR2 behaves as a core component of the nuclear speckle and is stabilized by RNA. In turn, nuclear speckle morphology appears to depend on RCOR2. Specifically, RCOR2 knockdown results larger nuclear speckles, whereas overexpressing RCOR2 leads to smaller and rounder nuclear speckles.
Our study suggests that RCOR2 is a regulatory component of the nuclear speckle bodies, setting this co-repressor protein as a factor that controls nuclear speckles behavior.
转录和 RNA 成熟等核过程可能会受到凝聚物和核体中亚核区室化的影响。在这里，我们描述了 REST 核心抑制因子 2（RCOR2）形成的核颗粒的性质，RCOR2 是维持多能性和中枢神经系统发育所必需的核蛋白。
我们使用生化方法和高分辨率显微镜揭示，RCOR2 在多种细胞类型中定位于核斑点，包括大脑中的神经元。RCOR2 与核斑点成分如 SON、SRSF7 和 SRRM2 形成复合物。当细胞暴露于化学应激时，RCOR2 作为核斑点的核心成分，并且被 RNA 稳定。反过来，核斑点形态似乎取决于 RCOR2。具体而言，RCOR2 敲低导致核斑点更大，而过表达 RCOR2 导致核斑点更小且更圆。
我们的研究表明，RCOR2 是核斑点体的调节成分，将这种共抑制蛋白作为控制核斑点行为的因素。
