POSSIBLE INVOLVEMENT OF A PERTUSSIS-TOXIN-SENSITIVE GTP-BINDING PROTEIN IN PROTEIN-TRANSPORT INTO NUCLEI ISOLATED FROM RAT-LIVER

Nuclear protein transport was inhibited in permeabilized HeLa cells which had been prepared after culture with pertussis toxin, suggesting that the pertussis toxin-sensitive protein(s) might be involved in the nuclear protein transport. To investigate the mechanism whereby pertussis toxin inhibited the nuclear protein transport, an accumulation of proteins containing a nuclear localization signal sequence (NLS) into isolated rat liver nuclei was investigated. The NLS-containing protein accumulation required ATP and cytosolic proteins, and was temperature- and wheat germ agglutinin-sensitive as had been observed in permeabilized cells. Non-hydrolyzable GTP analogues, such as guanosine 5'-(gamma-thio)triphosphate and guanosine 5'-(beta,gamma-methylene)triphosphate, but not ATP analogues, inhibited the NLS-containing protein accumulation in the isolated nuclei. The NLS-containing protein accumulation was also inhibited by prior treatment of the nuclei with pertussis toxin plus NAD, and the effect of pertussis toxin was blocked when guanosine 5'-(gamma-thio)triphosphate was simultaneously added during the pretreatment with pertussis toxin. The inhibition induced by pertussin toxin and the blockage by guanosine 5'-(gamma-thio)triphosphate were well correlated to ADP-ribosylation of 40-kDa protein in nuclear fraction. These results suggested that the nuclear pertussis toxin-sensitive GTP-binding protein is involved in a pathway of nuclear protein transport.