Thermosensitivity of green fluorescent protein fluorescence utilized to reveal novel nuclear-like compartments in a mutant nucleoporin NSP1.

Tagging proteins with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequorea victoria is a good means of analyzing protein localization in living cells. Nevertheless, GFP and a chimeric protein, GFP-nucleoplasmin, expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were less fluorescent at high culture temperatures. Proteins synthesized at a low temperature retained their fluorescence despite a shift to a higher temperature. Hence, when a temperature-sensitive nsp1 mutant expressing GFP-nucleoplasmin was cultured at 23 degrees C and then shifted to 35 degrees C, we were able to exclusively monitor the localization of the protein synthesized prior to the temperature shift. This protein accumulated in novel nuclear-like compartments devoid of DNA.