Enzyme-mediated proximity labeling reveals the co-translational targeting of DLGAP5 mRNA to the centrosome during mitosis

Subcellular RNA localization is a conserved mechanism in eukaryotic cells and plays critical roles in diverse physiological processes including cell proliferation, differentiation, and embryo development. Nevertheless, the characterization of centrosome-localized mRNAs remains under-explored due to technical difficulties. In this study, we utilize APEX2-mediated proximity labeling to map centrosome-proximal transcriptome, identifying DLGAP5 mRNA as a novel centrosome-localized transcript during mitosis. Using a combination of drug perturbation, truncation, deletion, and mutagenesis, we demonstrate that microtubule binding of nascent MBD1 polypeptide is required for centrosomal transport of DLGAP5 mRNA. Our data also reveals that mRNA targeting efficiency is tightly linked to the coding sequence length. Thus, our study provides a transcriptomic resource for future investigation of centrosome-localized RNAs, and sheds light on mechanisms underlying mRNA centrosomal localization.