TY - JOUR A1 - Scheer, Ulrich T1 - A novel type of chromatin organization in lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii: visualization of clusters of tandemly repeated, very short transcriptional units N2 - A novel chromatin configuration is described in lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii oocytes which is different from transcriptionally inactive chromatin as weil as from the various forms of transcribed chromatin hitherto described. This novel type of chromatin is not arranged in Christmas tree-Iike configurations of densely packed lateral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) fibriIs but is characterized by a periodic alternating pattern of thick and thin regions which occur in clusters 01 some 10,000 repeats. Each thickened unit with an average length of 45 nm contains two c10sely spaced particles, the putative RNA polymerases, and each thickened unit is separated from the next one by a beaded chromatin spacer with a length of about 80 nm. This chromatin spacer contains on average two particles of approximately 14 nm in diameter, assumed to be nucleosomes. The thickened regions are interpreted to represent short transcriptional units containing approximately 130 base pairs of DNA which are separated from each other by nontranscribed spacers of 240-400 base pairs of DNA. The possibility is discussed that these transcriptional units represent 5S rRNA or tRNA genes. KW - Lampbrush chromosomes KW - Amphibian oocytes KW - Transcription units KW - Electron microscopy Y1 - 1982 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-41087 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eckert, W. A. A1 - Franke, Werner W. A1 - Scheer, Ulrich T1 - Actinomycin D and the central granules in the nuclear pore complex: thin sectioning versus negative staining N2 - Thin section electron microscopy of Actinomycin D treated Tetrahymena cells and amphibian oocytes (Xenopus laevis, Triturus aZpestris) reveal no reduction in the central granules in the nuclear pore complexes. Possible reasons for the diversity between these results and earlier observations using negatively stained isolated nuclear envelopes from the same objects are discussed. The results clearly show that the presence of central granules within the nuclear pores does neither depend on nuclear RNA synthesis nor does indicate nucleocytoplasmic RNA transport. This conclusion leads to a reconsideration of the nature of the central granule. The functioning of the central granule of the nuclear pore complexes is further discussed in connection with recent studies on the ultrastructure of various types of cisternal pores. KW - Nuclear pores KW - Nucleocytoplasmic exchange KW - Actinomycin D KW - Tetrahymena KW - Amphibian oocytes Y1 - 1972 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-40636 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scheer, Ulrich T1 - The ultrastructure of the nuclear envelope of amphibian ooctyes: IV. On the chemical nature of the nuclear pore complex material N2 - In order to investigate the chemical composition of the nuclear pore complexes isolated nuclei from mature Xenopus laevis oocytes were manually fractioned into nucleo· plasmic aggregates and the nuclear envelopes. The whole isolation procedure takes no more than 60- 90 sec, and the pore complexes of the isolated envelopes are well preserved as demonstrated by electron microscopy. Minor nucleoplasmic and cytoplasmic contaminations associated with the isolated nuclear envelopes were determined with electron microscopic morphometry and were found to be quantitatively negligible as far as their mass and nucleic acid content is concerned. The RNA content of the fractions was determined by direct phosphorus analysis after differential alkaline hydrolysis. Approximately 9% of the total nuclear RNA of the mature Xenopus egg was found to be attached to the nuclear envelope. The nonmembranous elements of one pore complex contain 0.41 X 10- 16 g RNA. This value agrees well with the content estimated from morphometric data. The RNA package density in the pore complexes (270 X 10- 15 g/fJ-3) is compared with the nucleolar, nucleoplasmic and cytoplasmic RNA concentration and is discussed in context with the importance of the pore complexes for the nucleo-cytoplasmic transport of RNA-containing macromolecules. Additionally, the results of the chemical analyses as well as of the 3H-actinomycin D autoradiography and of the nucleoprotein staining method of Bernhard (1969) speak against the occurence of considerable amounts of DNA in the nuclear pore complex structures. KW - Nuclear envelope KW - Amphibian oocytes KW - Nuclear pore complex KW - Chemical nature KW - Electron microscopy Y1 - 1972 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-39500 ER -