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    Abstract:
    Abstract During mitotic exit, thousands of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) assemble concomitant with the nuclear envelope to build a transport-competent nucleus. We show here that Nup50 plays a crucial role in NPC assembly that is independent of its well-established function in nuclear transport. RNAi-mediated downregulation in cells or immunodepletion of the protein in Xenopus egg extracts interferes with NPC assembly. We define a conserved central region of 46 residues in Nup50 that is crucial for Nup153 and MEL28/ELYS binding, and NPC interaction. Surprisingly, neither NPC interaction nor binding of Nup50 to importin α, β, the GTPase Ran or chromatin is crucial for its function in the assembly process. Instead, we discovered that an N-terminal fragment of Nup50 can stimulate the Ran guanine exchange factor RCC1 and NPC assembly, indicating that Nup50 acts via the Ran system in mitotic NPC reformation. In support of this conclusion, Nup50 mutants defective in RCC1 binding and stimulation cannot replace the wild type protein in in vitro NPC assembly assays.
    Keywords:
    Ran
    Nuclear pore
    Nucleoporin
    Importin
    Karyopherin
    Small GTPase
    Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are the architectures entrenched in nuclear envelop of a cell that regulate the nucleo-cytoplasmic transportation of materials, such as proteins and RNAs for proper functioning of a cell. The appropriate localization of proteins and RNAs within the cell is essential for its normal functionality. For such a complex transportation of materials across the NPC, around 60 proteins are involved comprising nucleoporins, karyopherins and RAN system proteins that play a vital role in NPC's structure formation, cargo translocation across NPC, and cargoes' rapid directed transportation respectively. In various cancers, the structure and function of NPC is often exaggerated, following altered expressions of its nucleoporins and karyopherins, affecting other proteins of associated signaling pathways. Some inhibitors of karyopherins at present, have potential to regulate the altered level/expression of these karyopherin molecules.
    Nucleoporin
    Karyopherin
    Nuclear pore
    Ran
    Importin
    Nuclear import and export signals on macromolecules mediate directional, receptor-driven transport through the nuclear pore complex (NPC) by a process that is suggested to involve the sequential binding of transport complexes to different nucleoporins. The directionality of transport appears to be partly determined by the nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization of components of the Ran GTPase system. We have analyzed whether the asymmetric localization of discrete nucleoporins can also contribute to transport directionality. To this end, we have used quantitative solid phase binding analysis to determine the affinity of an importin β cargo complex for Nup358, the Nup62 complex, and Nup153, which are in the cytoplasmic, central, and nucleoplasmic regions of the NPC, respectively. These nucleoporins are proposed to provide progressively more distal binding sites for importin β during import. Our results indicate that the importin β transport complex binds to nucleoporins with progressively increasing affinity as the complex moves from Nup358 to the Nup62 complex and to Nup153. Antibody inhibition studies support the possibility that importin β moves from Nup358 to Nup153 via the Nup62 complex during import. These results indicate that nucleoporins themselves, as well as the nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization of the Ran system, are likely to play an important role in conferring directionality to nuclear protein import.
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Ran
    Importin
    Compartmentalization (fire protection)
    Karyopherin
    Citations (275)
    We have identified and characterized a 9S protein complex from a Xenopus ovary cytosolic subfraction (fraction A) that constitutes this fraction's activity in recognizing a model nuclear import substrate and docking it at the nuclear pore complex. Because of its function, the complex is termed karyopherin. The 54- and 56-kDa subunits of the complex are termed alpha 1 and alpha 2, respectively, and the 97-kDa subunit is termed beta. In an alternative approach we have identified karyopherin beta from a rat liver cytosolic subfraction A by using immobilized rat nucleoporin Nup98 in a single, affinity-based enrichment step. We have molecularly cloned and sequenced rat karyopherin beta. Comparison with protein sequence data banks showed no significant similarity to other known proteins. Using nitrocellulose-immobilized rat liver nuclear envelope proteins and nuclear import substrate as a ligand, we found Xenopus fraction A-dependent binding to at least three bona fide nucleoporins (Nup214, Nup153, and Nup98) and to a candidate nucleoporin with an estimated molecular mass of 270 kDa. We propose that these nucleoporins function as docking proteins for karyopherin-mediated binding of substrate in a nuclear import/export pathway across the nuclear pore complex.
    Nucleoporin
    Karyopherin
    Nuclear pore
    Citations (430)
    Abstract Nucleocytoplasmic transport of macromolecules is essential in eukaryotic cells. In this process, the karyopherins play a central role when they transport cargoes across the nuclear pore complex. Importin 4 belongs to the karyopherin β family. Many studies have focused on finding substrates for importin 4, but no direct mechanism studies of its precise transport function have been reported. Therefore, this paper mainly aimed to study the mechanism of nucleoporins in mediating nuclear import and export of importin 4. To address this question, we constructed shRNAs targeting Nup358, Nup153, Nup98, and Nup50. We found that depletion of Nup98 resulted in a shift in the subcellular localization of importin 4 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Mutational analysis demonstrated that Nup98 physically and functionally interacts with importin 4 through its N‐terminal phenylalanine‐glycine (FG) repeat region. Mutation of nine of these FG motifs to SG motifs significantly attenuated the binding of Nup98 to importin 4, and we further confirmed the essential role of the six FG motifs in amino acids 121–360 of Nup98 in binding with importin 4. In vitro transport assay also confirmed that VDR, the substrate of importin 4, could not be transported into the nucleus after Nup98 knockdown. Overall, our results showed that Nup98 is required for efficient importin 4‐mediated transport. This is the first study to reveal the mechanism of importin 4 in transporting substrates into the nucleus.
    Importin
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Karyopherin
    Ran
    Citations (0)
    Author(s): Tang, Jeffrey Hsin Nien | Advisor(s): Liphardt, Jan | Abstract: The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is one of the largest known protein structures in the cell. Evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes ranging from fungi to plants and animals, the NPC is the main transporter of molecules between the cell cytoplasm and nucleus. Maintaining the proper compartment-specific localization of proteins and RNA is crucial for normal cell function, and the nuclear pore accomplishes this task both robustly and efficiently. Over the past several decades, insight into the composition, organization, structure, and mechanism of the NPC has been gradually teased out through careful experimentation. However, many questions about the pore's function remain unanswered. In this dissertation, I describe efforts aimed at elucidating several aspects of the NPC. First, I investigate the transport properties of the pore, specifically looking at how the nuclear transport receptor importin-β and the Ran GTPase interact not only with each other but also how they may affect the pore itself. The nucleoporin Nup153 is identified as an important player in the nuclear transport process which binds strongly to importin-β in a Ran-sensitive manner. Using multiple experimental techniques, the properties of importin-β, and Nup153's interactions are characterized and shown to be capable of modulating the selective permeability barrier of the NPC.Next, I examine how members of a major class of nuclear pore proteins, the scaffold nucleoporins, are both structurally and functionally similar to the karyopherin family of soluble nuclear transport receptors. Structures of the proteins Nup188 and Nup192 are analyzed and shown to resemble those of karyopherins. Furthermore, in vitro assays indicate that at least a subset of the scaffold nucleoporins behave functionally as transport receptors, hinting at an evolutionary relationship between these two important classes of proteins.Finally, a calcium-mediated phenomenon affecting the permeability of the NPC is explored. I show that certain cytosolic proteases are activated by millimolar concentrations of calcium ion which leads irreversibly to an increase in the nuclear pore's permeability to large molecules. A model for physiological pathways implicated in this effect is proposed.
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Importin
    Karyopherin
    Ran
    Transport protein
    Citations (0)
    The mechanisms that govern the assembly of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) remain largely unknown. Here, we have established a role for karyopherins in this process. We show that the yeast karyopherin Kap121p functions in the targeting and assembly of the nucleoporin Nup53p into NPCs by recognizing a nuclear localization signal (NLS) in Nup53p. This karyopherin-mediated function can also be performed by the Kap95p–Kap60p complex if the Kap121p-binding domain of Nup53p is replaced by a classical NLS, suggesting a more general role for karyopherins in NPC assembly. At the NPC, neighboring nucleoporins bind to two regions in Nup53p. One nucleoporin, Nup170p, associates with a region of Nup53p that overlaps with the Kap121p binding site and we show that they compete for binding to Nup53p. We propose that once targeted to the NPC, dissociation of the Kap121p–Nup53p complex is driven by the interaction of Nup53p with Nup170p. At the NPC, Nup53p exists in two separate complexes, one of which is capable of interacting with Kap121p and another that is bound to Nup170p. We propose that fluctuations between these two states drive the binding and release of Kap121p from Nup53p, thus facilitating Kap121p's movement through the NPC.
    Karyopherin
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Ran
    Importin
    Citations (83)
    We have identified a new yeast nucleoporin of 159 kDa that we term NUP159. Immunofluorescence microscopy with a monospecific monoclonal antibody against NUP159 gave the punctate nuclear rim staining characteristic of nucleoporins. Immunogold electron microscopy with isolated yeast NEs yielded decoration of only the cytoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex. The gene encoding NUP159 is essential, and, like some other nucleoporins, NUP159 contains a coiled-coil domain as well as a domain of repeated motifs. Five segments of NUP159, covering its entire length, were expressed in Escherichia coli. The repeat motif-containing segment was found to bind a nuclear transport substrate in the presence of vertebrate cytosolic extract containing nuclear transport factors. This segment also bound 35S-labeled mammalian karyopherin β, one such transport factor that mediates the docking of substrates to the nuclear pore complex. These data establish a direct biochemical link between the repeat motif domain of a yeast nucleoporin, transport factors, (specifically karyopherin β), and nuclear transport substrates. Its cytoplasmic aspect implies a role for NUP159 in nuclear import.
    Karyopherin
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Citations (139)
    The regulated exchange of proteins and nucleic acids between the nucleus and cytoplasm demands a complex interplay between nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), which provide conduits in the nuclear envelope, and mobile transport receptors (or karyopherins, also known as importins/exportins) that bind and mediate the translocation of cargoes through the NPCs. Biochemical characterization of individual karyopherins has led to the identification of many of their cargoes and to the elucidation of the mechanisms by which they mediate transport. Likewise, the characterization of numerous NPC-associated components, in combination with structural studies of NPCs, have begun to address the possible mechanisms that drive nucleocytoplasmic transport, and the role that different nucleoporins play in the transport process. Some recent studies indicate that several NPC-associated factors, previously thought to be stable components of the NPC, dynamically interact with both nuclear and cytoplasmic aspects of the NPC. The mobility of these components challenges our conventional view of the NPC as the stationary phase of transport. These components and their potiential roles in nucleo-cytoplasmic transport are discussed.Key words: Nucleocytoplasmic transport, nuclear pore complex, nucleoporin, karyopherin, Nup2p.
    Karyopherin
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Importin
    Ran
    Citations (2)
    A major question in nuclear import concerns the identity of the nucleoporin(s) that interact with the nuclear localization sequences (NLS) receptor and its cargo as they traverse the nuclear pore. Ligand blotting and solution binding studies of isolated proteins have attempted to gain clues to the identities of these nucleoporins, but the studies have from necessity probed binding events far from an in vivo context. Here we have asked what binding events occur in the more physiological context of a Xenopus egg extract, which contains nuclear pore subcomplexes in an assembly competent state. We have then assessed our conclusions in the context of assembled nuclear pores themselves. We have used immunoprecipitation to identify physiologically relevant complexes of nucleoporins and importin subunits. In parallel, we have demonstrated that it is possible to obtain immunofluorescence localization of nucleoporins to subregions of the nuclear pore and its associated structures. By immunoprecipitation, we find the nucleoporin Nup153 and the pore-associated filament protein Tpr, previously shown to reside at distinct sites on the intranuclear side of assembled pores, are each in stable subcomplexes with importin alpha and beta in Xenopus egg extracts. Importin subunits are not in stable complexes with nucleoporins Nup62, Nup93, Nup98, or Nup214/CAN, either in egg extracts or in extracts of assembled nuclear pores. In characterizing the Nup153 complex, we find that Nup153 can bind to a complete import complex containing importin alpha, beta, and an NLS substrate, consistent with an involvement of this nucleoporin in a terminal step of nuclear import. Importin beta binds directly to Nup153 and in vitro can do so at multiple sites in the Nup153 FXFG repeat region. Tpr, which has no FXFG repeats, binds to importin beta and to importin alpha/beta heterodimers, but only to those that do not carry an NLS substrate. That the complex of Tpr with importin beta is fundamentally different from that of Nup153 is additionally demonstrated by the finding that recombinant beta or beta45-462 fragment freely exchanges with the endogenous importin beta/Nup153 complex, but cannot displace endogenous importin beta from a Tpr complex. However, the GTP analogue GMP-PNP is able to disassemble both Nup153- and Tpr-importin beta complexes. Importantly, analysis of extracts of isolated nuclei indicates that Nup153- and Tpr-importin beta complexes exist in assembled nuclear pores. Thus, Nup153 and Tpr are major physiological binding sites for importin beta. Models for the roles of these interactions are discussed.
    Nucleoporin
    Nuclear pore
    Importin
    Karyopherin
    Immunoprecipitation
    Citations (199)