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To be or not to be in the nucleolus

Nature Cell Biology volume 2, pages E107–E112 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Compartmentalization has long been known to have a key role in regulation of cellular processes. By keeping enzymes and regulatory complexes in compartments where the delivery of substrate or exit of product is controlled, competing reactions can occur simultaneously in different parts of the cell. Moreover, spatial confinement facilitates the working of molecules participating in reaction chains and is crucial for coupling unfavourable with energetically favourable chemical reactions. Although in many cases intracellular compartmentalization relies on boundaries imposed by membranes, several non-membrane-bounded compartments exist in eukaryotic cells. One of these, the nucleolus, has recently attracted much attention. The emerging view is that molecular confinement in the nucleolus actively contributes to the control of cellular survival and proliferation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to T. Pederson, D. Tollervey and U. Scheer for valuable comments on the manuscript and to our colleagues who communicated data prior to publication. M.C-F. is supported by grants from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/PRAXIS XXI. I.C. is a fellow of the Gulbenkian PhD programme.

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  1. Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Egas Moniz , Portugal, Lisbon, 1649-028

    Maria Carmo-Fonseca, Luís Mendes-Soares & Isabel Campos

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Correspondence to Maria Carmo-Fonseca.

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Carmo-Fonseca, M., Mendes-Soares, L. & Campos, I. To be or not to be in the nucleolus. Nat Cell Biol 2, E107–E112 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35014078

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