Karyophilic proteins: polypeptides synthesized in vitro accumulate in the nucleus on microinjection into the cytoplasm of amphibian oocytes.

The specific nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization of proteins has been examined for some major soluble acidic nuclear proteins in oocytes of different amphibia. Proteins synthesized and radioactively labeled by translation in vitro, by using mRNA from ovaries of the frog Xenopus laevis, were injected into the cytoplasm of living oocytes of Xenopus or of the salamander Pleurodeles waltlii. At various times after injection, nucleus and cytoplasm were manually separated and endogenous and injected proteins were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. We show that several major nucleus-specific proteins of different sizes and electrical charges, including the very acidic proteins N1 and N2 (Mr, 110,000 and 100,000) and N4 (Mr, 34,000), are identical in both forms--i.e., as translation products in vitro and as present in the nucleoplasm. We conclude that significantly different cytoplasmic precursor forms to these nuclear proteins do not exist. The experiments indicate that (i) the translation products contain the signal(s) directing the specific sequestration of these proteins within the nucleus, (ii) post-translational processing is not required for the accumulation of these proteins in the nucleoplasm, and (iii) the signals and the mechanisms involved are not species specific.