Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF, 800K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Robinson, R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Robinson, R. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Hand it to the nucleolus

The release of Hand1 (green) from the nucleolus coincides with giant cell differentiation (top to bottom). RILEY/MACMILLAN

Long viewed as merely a biofactory for ribosomes, the nucleolus has recently come to be seen as a multifunctional and dynamic subnuclear organelle. New support for this view comes from a study by David Martindill, Paul Riley (UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK), and colleagues, who show that a cell fate regulator is held inactive in the nucleolus until phosphorylation releases it to trigger differentiation.

Differentiation of mouse trophoblast stem cells into a specialized cell type called giant cells requires Hand1, a bHLH transcription factor. Hand1 interacts with a wider variety of other bHLH partners than do others of its class. The authors thus wondered whether it might also interact with unrelated partners that help it time giant cell differentiation. Using a yeast two-hybrid approach, they found that Hand1 bound to a nucleolar subunit of a protein called HIC.

While Hand1 hung out with HIC in the nucleolus, trophoblast cells did not differentiate. But Hand1 exited the nucleolus at the time of their differentiation to giant cells. This exit required the phosphorylation of Hand1.

The kinase that phosphorylated Hand1, called Polo-like kinase 4, is evolutionarily conserved. Phosphorylation-dependent release of transcription factors from the nucleolus may turn out to be a widespread mechanism to control their activity.

Reference:

Martindill, D.M.J., et al. 2007. Nat. Cell Biol. doi:10.1038/ncb1633.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Richard Robinson

rrobinson{at}nasw.org

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Full Text (PDF, 800K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Robinson, R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Robinson, R. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?