Structural characterisation of TNRC6A nuclear localisation signal in complex with importin-alpha.

Jessica J Chaston, Alastair Gordon Stewart, Mary Christie

PloS one 2017

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The GW182/TNRC6 family of proteins are central scaffolds that link microRNA-associated Argonaute proteins to the cytoplasmic decay machinery for targeted mRNA degradation processes. Although nuclear roles for the GW182/TNRC6 proteins are unknown, recent reports have demonstrated nucleocytoplasmic shuttling activity that utilises the importin-α and importin-β transport receptors for nuclear translocation. Here we describe the structure of mouse importin-α in complex with the TNRC6A nuclear localisation signal peptide. We further show that the interactions observed between TNRC6A and importin-α are conserved between mouse and human complexes. Our results highlight the ability of monopartite cNLS sequences to maximise contacts at the importin-α major binding site, as well as regions outside the main binding cavities.

Citation

Jessica J Chaston, Alastair Gordon Stewart, Mary Christie. Structural characterisation of TNRC6A nuclear localisation signal in complex with importin-alpha. PloS one. 2017;12(8):e0183587