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PMID: 19748337 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

The nuclear pore complex has entered the atomic age.

Structure (London, England : 1993) ·Vol. 17 ·No. 9 ·2009-09-09 ·Pages 1156-68

Brohawn SG, Partridge JR, Whittle JR, Schwartz TU

Abstract

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) perforate the nuclear envelope and represent the exclusive passageway into and out of the nucleus of the eukaryotic cell. Apart from their essential transport function, components of the NPC have important, direct roles in nuclear organization and in gene regulation. Because of its central role in cell biology, it is of considerable interest to determine the NPC structure at atomic resolution. The complexity of these large, 40-60 MDa protein assemblies has for decades limited such structural studies. More recently, exploiting the intrinsic modularity of the NPC, structural biologists are making progress toward understanding this nanomachine in molecular detail. Structures of building blocks of the stable, architectural scaffold of the NPC have been solved, and distinct models for their assembly proposed. Here we review the status of the field and lay out the challenges and the next steps toward a full understanding of the NPC at atomic resolution.

MeSH Terms
Nuclear Pore Nuclear Proteins/chemistry Protein Conformation
Chemicals
Nuclear Proteins
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Brohawn Stephen G
Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Partridge James R
Whittle James R R
Schwartz Thomas U
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Article Info
Journal
Structure (London, England : 1993)
Abbr.
Structure
ISSN
1878-4186
DOI
10.1016/j.str.2009.07.014
Published
2009-09-09
Pages
1156-68
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
101087697
PMCID
PMC2776643
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM077537 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM077537-03 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · GM077537 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2009.07.014 PMC Full Text View journal details
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