Nucleolar function on formation, stability and translation of messenger RNA

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The Rex protein is localized in the nucleoli of cells infected by HTLV-I, a human retrovirus causing adult T-cell leukemia. We studied roles of Rex protein in the nucleus and its effect on the formation, stability, transport and translation of messenger RNAS. The Rex protein without the nucleolar targeting signal (NOS) failed to form the unspliced gag-pro-pol messenger RNA of HTLV-I, indicating that the NOS is required for transporting certain type of messenger RNAs from nucleus to cytoplasm. Furthermore, another human retrovirus causing AIDS, HIV-1 contains the NOS in two regulatory gene products, Tat and Rev. We have found that the NOS of Tat and Rev proteins is essential for their functions.