Nanocompartmentalization of the Nuclear Pore Lumen.

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) employs the intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) from a family of phenylalanine-glycine-rich nucleoporins (FG-Nups) to control nucleocytoplasmic transport. It has been a long-standing mystery how the IDR-mediated mass exchange can be rapid yet selective. Here, we use a computational microscope to show that nanocompartmentalization of IDR subdomains leads to a remarkably elaborate gating structure as programmed by the amino acid sequences. In particular, we reveal a heterogeneous permeability barrier that combines an inner ring barrier with two vestibular condensates. Throughout the NPC, we find a polarized electrostatic potential and a diffuse thermoreversible FG network featuring mosaic FG territories with low FG-FG pairing fraction. Our theoretical anatomy of the central transporter sheds light into the sequence-structure-function relationship of the FG-Nups and provides a picture of nucleocytoplasmic mass exchange that allows a reconciliation of transport efficiency and specificity. Copyright © 2019 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Kai Huang, Mario Tagliazucchi, Sung Hyun Park, Yitzhak Rabin, Igal Szleifer. Nanocompartmentalization of the Nuclear Pore Lumen. Biophysical journal. 2020 Jan 07;118(1):219-231

Mesh Tags

PMID: 31839259

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