It has long been proposed that nuclear RNAs might play an important role in organizing the structure of the nucleus. Initial experiments performed more than 30 years ago found that global disruption of RNA led to visible rearrangements of nuclear organization. Yet, this idea remained controversial for many years, in large part because it was unclear what specific RNAs might be involved, and which specific nuclear structures might be dependent on RNA. Over the past few years, the contributions of RNA to organizing nuclear structures have become clearer with the discovery that many nuclear bodies are enriched for specific noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs); in specific cases, ncRNAs have been shown to be essential for establishment and maintenance of these nuclear structures. More recently, many different ncRNAs have been shown to play critical roles in initiating the three-dimensional (3D) spatial organization of DNA, RNA, and protein molecules in the nucleus. These examples, combined with global imaging and genomic experiments, have begun to paint a picture of a broader role for RNA in nuclear organization and to uncover a unifying mechanism that may explain why RNA is a uniquely suited molecule for this role. In this review, we provide an overview of the history of RNA and nuclear structure and discuss key examples of RNA-mediated bodies, the global roles of ncRNAs in shaping nuclear structure, and emerging insights into mechanisms of RNA-mediated nuclear organization.

中文翻译：

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RNA 在塑造核组织中的重要作用


长期以来，人们一直认为核 RNA 可能在组织细胞核结构中发挥重要作用。 30 多年前进行的初步实验发现，RNA 的整体破坏导致核组织发生明显的重新排列。然而，这个想法多年来仍然存在争议，很大程度上是因为尚不清楚哪些特定的 RNA 可能参与其中，以及哪些特定的核结构可能依赖于 RNA。在过去的几年里，随着人们发现许多核体富含特定的非编码 RNA (ncRNA)，RNA 对组织核结构的贡献变得更加清晰。在特定情况下，ncRNA 已被证明对于建立和维持这些核结构至关重要。最近，许多不同的 ncRNA 已被证明在启动细胞核中 DNA、RNA 和蛋白质分子的三维 (3D) 空间组织方面发挥着关键作用。这些例子与全局成像和基因组实验相结合，已经开始描绘出 RNA 在核组织中更广泛作用的图景，并揭示了一个统一的机制，可以解释为什么 RNA 是一种独特地适合这种作用的分子。在这篇综述中，我们概述了 RNA 和核结构的历史，并讨论了 RNA 介导的体的关键例子、ncRNA 在塑造核结构中的整体作用，以及对 RNA 介导的核组织机制的新见解。