Procedures for specific detection of silver-stained nucleolar proteins on western blots

Nucleolar organizer region (NOR)-silver staining of the chromosomes and nucleoli is a method that enables the detection of proteins associated with the ribosomal genes. We adapted the most commonly used cytochemical NOR-silver staining techniques to Western-blotted proteins of HeLa cells, mimicking the silver staining of cells in situ, and testing several parameters that may influence the in situ reaction. Two of these techniques, both one-step methods with colloidal developers, were standardized to obtain reproducible results. The specificity of NOR staining is documented by: (a) only a few bands are revealed among the many proteins detected by total proteins staining on gels or blots; two major groups of bands are found around 100 KD and 40 KD that could correspond at least in part to nucleolin and B23 nucleolar proteins; (b) the silver staining of bands was not the result of the high relative protein concentrations; and (c) the same number of NOR-silver-stained bands was observed across a large range of protein concentrations. The reaction appeared to be specific for a subset of nucleolar proteins, because the same bands were observed with the use of nucleolar, nuclear, or total cell protein extracts, and the silver grains observed in electron microscopy were clearly confined to the nucleolar fibrillar centers and dense fibrillar component. The efficiency of the reaction was not modified by any of the tested fixative pre-treatments except that involving methanol. The presented standardization of NOR-silver staining on Western blots allows the characterization of the Ag-NOR proteins and their specific regions responsible for silver staining of the nucleolus.