RNA on the move
In the fruit fly Drosophila, oskar mRNA, which is involved in defining the animal's body axes, is produced in the nuclei of nurse cells neighbouring the oocyte, and must be transported to the oocyte and along its entire length before being translated into protein. Scientists in the group of Anne Ephrussi at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have visualised the molecular mechanism that underlies this localisation process. In a study published today in Cell, they showed for the first time that, upon export from the nucleus of nurse cells into the cytosol - the semifluid that surrounds a cell's nucleus - RNA particles recruit two motor proteins, kinesin and dynein, which transport the RNA to its final location in the oocyte...