Yeast Rrp6p and its human counterpart, PM/Scl100, are exosome-associated proteins involved in the degradation of aberrant transcripts and processing of precursors to stable RNAs, such as the 5.8S rRNA, snRNAs, and snoRNAs. The activity of yeast Rrp6p is stimulated by the polyadenylation of its RNA substrates. We identified three RRP6-like proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana: AtRRP6L3 is restricted to the cytoplasm, whereas AtRRP6L1 and -2 have different intranuclear localizations. Both nuclear RRP6L proteins are functional, since AtRRP6L1 complements the temperature-sensitive phenotype of a yeast rrp6⌬ strain and mutation of AtRRP6L2 leads to accumulation of an rRNA maturation by-product. This by-product corresponds to the excised 5 part of the 18S-5.8S-25S rRNA precursor and accumulates as a polyadenylated transcript, suggesting that RRP6L2 is involved in poly(A)-mediated RNA degradation in plant nuclei. Interestingly, the rRNA maturation by-product is a substrate of AtRRP6L2 but not of AtRRP6L1. This result and the distinctive subcellular distribution of AtRRP6L1 to -3 indicate a specialization of RRP6-like proteins in Arabidopsis.The exoribonucleolytic activity of the exosome is fundamental to many aspects of RNA metabolism. The exosome is involved in mRNA turnover and degradation of defective and cryptic transcripts, but also in processing of the 3Ј extremities of a variety of noncoding RNAs and elimination of RISCcleaved mRNA (for recent reviews, see references 27 and 46). While most exosome functions were initially characterized in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, related complexes are present in all higher eukaryotes investigated and in several Archaea (4, 9-11, 17, 26, 29, 35, 36).Eukaryotic exosomes are composed of a core complex with which cytoplasm-and nucleus-specific subunits associate (reviewed in reference 38). One of these subunits, Rrp6p, a member of the RNase D family, associates with the nuclear exosome in yeast (2). Its human counterpart, PM/Scl-100, is predominantly nuclear but is also detected in the cytoplasm (7). Rrp6p plays a role in nuclear mRNA surveillance and in the degradation of rRNA maturation by-products or intergenic transcripts (30,33,47,51). In addition, Rrp6p is involved in the final steps in processing several noncoding RNAs (1, 6).In yeast, the TRAMP complex polyadenylates RNA substrates, which triggers their degradation by the nuclear exosome (30,47,51). In higher eukaryotes, evidence for polyadenylation of nuclear transcripts destined for degradation is emerging. Short poly(A) tails were detected upon cotranscriptional cleavage of human -globin and murine serum albumin pre-mRNA (50). Human rRNA can also be polyadenylated at putative sites of endonucleolytic cleavage (44). In plants, polyadenylation of nuclear noncoding RNA also occurs, as polyadenylated transcripts of the low-abundance 5S rRNA spacer were reported in Nicotiana (20). During revision of our manuscript, a genome-wide search for exosome substrates revealed that a wide range of nuclear noncoding transcripts a...