Research Article 3615 Cytosolic, nuclear and nucleolar localization signals determine subcellular distribution and activity of the NF-κB inducing kinase NIK Andreas Birbach1, Shannon T. Bailey2, Sankar Ghosh2 and Johannes A. Schmid1,* 1Department of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research, University of Vienna Medical School and Competence Center Bio-Molecular Therapeutics, Schwarzspanierstr. 17, 1090 Vienna, Austria 2Room S620, Section of Immunobiology, Yale University Medical School, 300 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA *Author for correspondence (e-mail:
[email protected]) Accepted 15 March 2004 Journal of Cell Science 117, 3615-3624 Published by The Company of Biologists 2004 doi:10.1242/jcs.01224 Summary It has been shown previously that the transcription factor approaches, we demonstrate a dynamic distribution NF-κB and its inhibitor IκBα shuttle constitutively between nucleoli and nucleoplasm and a high mobility of between cytosol and nucleus. Moreover, we have recently NIK in both compartments. Together with the nuclear demonstrated nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of the NF-κB- export signal in the C-terminal portion of NIK that we have inducing kinase NIK, a component of the NF-κB pathway, also characterized in detail, the nuclear/nucleolar targeting which is essential for lymph node development and B-cell signals of NIK mediate dynamic circulation of the protein function. Here we show that nuclear NIK also occurs in between the cytoplasmic, nucleoplasmic and nucleolar nucleoli and that this localization is mediated by a stretch compartments. We demonstrate that nuclear NIK is of basic amino acids in the N-terminal part of the protein capable of activating NF-κB and that this effect is (R143-K-K-R-K-K-K149).