Effects of macromolecular crowding on nuclear size

The concentration of macromolecules inside cells is high, and the resultant crowding of cytoplasm can be expected to affect many interactions involving macromolecular assemblies. Here, we have examined the effect of solute size and concentration on nuclear volume in saponin-permeabilized macrophages. Nuclei swelled in the presence of small solutes and shrank reversibly in the presence of larger permeant solutes. Remarkably, the smallest solutes capable of shrinking the nucleus were not excluded by the pores in the nuclear envelope. Indeed, nuclei shrank in the presence of such solutes even after the nuclear envelope had been sheared mechanically or permeabilized with detergent. Nuclei extracted with 1% Triton X-100 shrank in the presence of very high concentrations of small solute molecules (30% w/v) as well as in lower concentrations of larger solutes. Consistent with a macromolecular crowding effect, changes in nuclear volume were dependent on solute size and not simply dependent on the colligative properties of solutes or the exclusion of solutes by the nuclear envelope. Solute size-dependent changes in nuclear volume were independent of the chemical nature of the solutes and of the activity of the ions in the buffer. Together, these observations indicate that high concentrations of macromolecules such as those found inside cells can influence the size of the nucleus by directly affecting nuclear structure.