Nucleolar targeting of the chaperone hsc70 is regulated by stress, cell signaling, and a composite targeting signal which is controlled by autoinhibition.

Hsc70s are constitutively synthesized members of the 70-kDa chaperone family; they are essential for viability and conserved among all organisms. When eukaryotic cells recover from stress, hsc70s accumulate in nucleoli by an unknown mechanism. Our studies were undertaken to characterize the signaling events and the targeting sequence required to concentrate hsc70 in the nucleoli of human cells. Here, we show that pharmacological inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase and MEK kinases as well as protein-tyrosine phosphatases abolished the stress-dependent nucleolar accumulation of hsc70. Furthermore, to identify the hsc70 nucleolar targeting sequence, green fluorescent protein-tagged fusion proteins with defined segments of hsc70 were generated and their subcellular distribution was analyzed in growing cells. These studies demonstrated that residues 225 to 297 serve as a heat-inducible nucleolar targeting signal. This segment directs green fluorescent protein to nucleoli in response to stress, but fails to do so under nonstress conditions. Fine mapping of the nucleolar targeting signal revealed that it has two separable functions. First, residues 225 to 262 direct reporter proteins constitutively to nucleoli, even without stress. Second, segment 263 to 287 functions as an autoinhibitory element that prevents hsc70 from concentrating in nucleoli when cells are not stressed. Taken together, PI 3-kinase and MEK kinase signaling as well as tyrosine dephosphorylation are essential for the accumulation of hsc70 in nucleoli of stressed cells. This process relies on a stress-dependent composite targeting signal that combines multiple functions.