Permeability measurements with closed vesicles from rat liver nuclear envelopes.

Closed nuclear envelope ghosts in the physiological orientation were prepared from rat liver and nuclei as previously described. Here we report transport measurements of various proteins and ribonucleic acids across the envelope of these vesicles. Histones were accumulated rapidly in the ghosts, in contrast to other, nonnuclear, proteins. Triton X-100 removal of the external nuclear membrane from loaded vesicles, as well as comparative studies with open vesicles, excluded the effects of external adsorption. The exchange rate of histones across the nuclear envelope is strongly depressed in the presence of GTP and GDP. The vesicles contain the translocation mechanism for poly(A)-containing RNA. The translocation of poly(A), messenger RNA, and ribosomal RNA was investigated after entrapment of these nucleic acids during the preparation of vesicles. Our data show that the complete export of only poly(A)-containing RNA from the vesicles is enhanced in the presence of 2 mM ATP. This RNA, as well as poly(A), is transported unidirectionally.