Nopp 140 shuttles on tracks between nucleolus and cytoplasm

Nopp140 is a nucleolar phosphoprotein of 140 kd that we originally identified and purified as a nuclear localization signal (NLS)-binding protein. Molecular characterization revealed a 10-fold repeated motif of highly conserved acidic serine clusters that contain an abundance of phosphorylation consensus sites for casein kinase II (CK II). Indeed, Nopp140 is one of the most phosphoryaated proteins in the cell, and NLS binding was dependent on phosphorylation. Nopp140 was shown to shuttle between the nucleolus and the cytoplasm. Shuttling is likely to proceed on tracks that were revealed by immunoelectron microscopy. These tracks extend from the dense fibrillar component of the nucleolus across the nucleoplasm to some nuclear pore complexes. We suggest that Nopp140 functions as a chaperone for import into and/or export from the nucleolus.