Neuronal activation affects the organization and protein composition of the nuclear speckles

Nuclear speckles, also known as interchromatin granule clusters (IGCs), are subnuclear domains highly enriched in proteins involved in transcription and mRNA metabolism and, until recently, have been regarded primarily as their storage and modification hubs. However, several recent studies on non-neuronal cell types indicate that speckles may directly contribute to gene expression as some of the active genes have been shown to associate with these structures.

Neuronal activity is one of the key transcriptional regulators and may lead to the rearrangement of some nuclear bodies. Notably, the impact of neuronal activation on IGC/nuclear speckles organization and function remains unexplored. To address this research gap, we examined whether and how neuronal stimulation affects the organization of these bodies in granular neurons from the rat hippocampal formation. Our findings demonstrate that neuronal stimulation induces morphological and proteomic remodelling of the speckles under both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Importantly, these changes are not associated with cellular stress or cell death but are dependent on transcription and splicing.