TY - JOUR T1 - Chromatin tethering to the nuclear envelope by nuclear actin filaments: a novel role of the actin cytoskeleton in the <em>Xenopus</em> blastula JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/105593 SP - 105593 AU - Haruka Oda AU - Natsuki Shirai AU - Naoko Ura AU - Keita Ohsumi AU - Mari Iwabuchi Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/02/03/105593.abstract N2 - The Xenopus oocyte is known to accumulate filamentous or F-actin in the nucleus, but it is currently unknown whether F-actin also accumulates in embryo nuclei. Using fluorescence-labeled actin reporters, we examined the actin distribution in Xenopus embryonic cells and found that F-actin accumulates in nuclei during the blastula stage but not during the gastrula stage. To further investigate nuclear F-actin, we devised a Xenopus egg extract that reproduces the formation of nuclei in which F-actin accumulates. Using this extract, we found that F-actin accumulates primarily at the sub-nuclear membranous region and is essential to maintain chromatin binding to the nuclear envelope in well-developed nuclei. We also provide evidence that nuclear F-actin increases the structural stability of nuclei and contributes to chromosome alignment on the mitotic spindle at the following M phase. These results suggest the physiological importance of nuclear F-actin accumulation in rapidly dividing, large Xenopus blastula cells. ER -