Within most types of eukaryotic CELL NUCLEUS, a distinct region, not delimited by a membrane, in which some species of rRNA (RNA, RIBOSOMAL) are synthesized and assembled into ribonucleoprotein subunits of ribosomes. In the nucleolus rRNA is transcribed from a nucleolar organizer, i.e., a group of tandemly repeated chromosomal genes which encode rRNA and which are transcribed by RNA polymerase I. (Singleton & Sainsbury, Dictionary of Microbiology & Molecular Biology, 2d ed).
