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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Aug 20.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Chem Biol. 2020 Jul 7;27(8):891–903. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.06.010

Figure 5: Tracking mRNAs in live cells reveals nonuniform distributions in diverse cell types with implications for function.

Figure 5:

(A) Two mRNAs were visualized in a live Drosophila oocyte with MS2/MCP and PP7/PCP. bcd mRNA (MS2/MCP-GFP, green) localizes to the anterior of the oocyte, whereas osk mRNA (PCP/PP7-mCherry, red) localizes to the posterior (arrow: autofluorescent yolk granules). Scale bar = 15 µm. Reprinted from (Abbaszadeh and Gavis, 2016) with permission from Elsevier. (B) Endogenous β-actin mRNA (24xMS2, MCP-TagRFPt, red) localizes to the leading edge in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Free GFP (green) served as a cytoplasmic marker. Scale bar = 10 µm. Reprinted from (Katz et al., 2012), copyright Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. (C) Movement of mRNA particles in dendrites of rat neurons is dynamic and indicative of targeted, bidirectional transport. The reporter 6xMS2-DsRed-3’UTR of Arc mRNA was cotransfected with MCP-GFP into rat cortical neurons to label mRNA (grey scale, upper panel). Intensely fluorescent spots correspond to gold beads used for biolistic transfection. Bottom panels: Kymographs of regions indicated by square and rectangular boxes on the top panel. Blue arrow heads: Moving mRNA particles (5 s intervals). Scale bar = 20 µm (top panel), 2 µm (inserts). Reprinted from (Dynes and Steward, 2008) with permission from Wiley. (D) Endogenous β-actin mRNA (24xMS2/tdMCP-GFP, arrow) is transferred between two mouse embryonic fibroblast cells via passage through nanotubes (right panel = zoom in of yellow box in the left panel). tdMCP-GFP was produced in the donor cell (bottom right), but not the acceptor cell (top left). Both cells are labeled with membrane targeted TagRFP-T (magenta). Scale bar = 5 µm. Reprinted from (Haimovich et al., 2017).