Hop-on hop-off: importin-α-guided tours to the nucleus in innate immune signaling.

ABSTRACT: Nuclear translocation of immune regulatory proteins and signal transducers is an essential process in animal and plant defense signaling against pathogenic microbes. Import of proteins containing a nuclear localization signal (NLS) into the nucleus is mediated by nuclear transport receptors termed importins, typically dimers of a cargo-binding α-subunit and a β-subunit that mediates translocation through the nuclear pore complex. Here, we review recent reports of importin-α cargo specificity and mutant phenotypes in plant- and animal-microbe interactions. Using homology modeling of the NLS-binding cleft of nine predicted Arabidopsis α-importins and analyses of their gene expression patterns, we discuss functional redundancy and specialization within this transport receptor family. In addit

SUBMITTER: Wirthmueller L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3659281 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature