发布: 2018年04月20日第8卷第8期 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2821 浏览次数: 6986
评审: Manjula MummadisettiPearl CampbellAmey Redkar
Abstract
Each cell contains many large DNA polymers packed in a nucleus of approx. 10 μm in diameter. With histones, these DNA polymers are known to form chromatins. How chromatins further compact in the nucleus is unclear but it inevitably depends on an extensive non-chromatin nuclear scaffold. Imaging of endogenous chromatin network and the complementary scaffold that support this network has not been achieved but biochemical and proteomic investigations of the scaffold can still provide important insights into this chromatin-organizing network. However, this demands highly inclusive and reproducible extraction of the nuclear scaffold. We have recently developed a simple protocol for releasing the scaffold components from chromatins. The inclusiveness of the extract was testified by the observation that, upon its extraction from the nuclei, the remaining nuclear chromatins were liberated into extended and often parallel chromatin fibers. Basically, this protocol includes the generation of pure nuclei, treatment of the nuclei with Triton X-100 to generate envelope-depleted nuclei (TxN), and extraction of the nuclei at 500 mM NaCl in a sucrose-containing buffer. This combined extract of TxN is known as TxNE.
Keywords: Nuclei (核)Background
Chromatins are densely and dynamically compacted in the nuclei through a complex scaffold of proteins and ribonucleoproteins. Unlike the cytoskeletal networks (Fischer and Fowler, 2015), microscopic observation of this nuclear scaffold is technically challenging. This may reflect the dominance of chromatins inside each nucleus with which the scaffold mingles and negotiates in the nucleus. The spherical arrangement of the nucleus also contributes to challenges in imaging such scaffold structures. A major element of the nuclear scaffold is the nuclear lamina (NL) (Gruenbaum and Foisner, 2015). NL covers the surface of the entire nuclear chromatin mass on which the nuclear envelop (NE) attaches. The peripheral surface of the nuclear chromatin mass is characterized by dense heterochromatin (Gruenbaum and Foisner, 2015). Inside the nucleus, one or more nucleoli can be found that occupy significant nuclear regions (Jordan and McGovern, 1981; Shaw and Jordan, 1995; Pederson, 2011). The nucleolar surface is also surrounded by a rim of dense chromatins and potentially functions as an important interior scaffold to support the chromatins (Chen et al., 2018). The morphology of the nucleoli changes dynamically depending on the stage of the cell cycle which can significantly affect the organization of nuclear chromatins (Hernandez-Verdun, 2011; Chen et al., 2018).
The presence of such scaffold structures has been extensively investigated in 1980-90s although a direct visualization has not been achieved (Gasser, 2002; Laemmli et al., 1992). However, the composition of the nuclear scaffold and interactions among the scaffold elements could be learned through biochemical, proteomic and imaging studies. To this end, effective and reproducible extraction of the nuclear scaffold from the chromatin network is essential. We have recently developed a simple protocol for the extraction of nuclear scaffold proteins (Chen et al., 2018).
This protocol was initially developed based on a study showing that isolated nucleoli could be solubilized at 400 mM NaCl (Trimbur and Walsh, 1993). We adopted this condition to solubilize isolated nuclei. The inclusiveness of the extract was testified by the liberation of nuclear chromatins as extended parallel chromatin fibers (Chen et al., 2018). TxNE can be used to study many aspects of the nuclear scaffold.
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© 2018 The Authors; exclusive licensee Bio-protocol LLC.
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细胞生物学 > 细胞结构 > 细胞核
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