Assembly of Nsp1 nucleoporins provides insight into nuclear pore complex gating.

ABSTRACT: Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) form gateways for material transfer across the nuclear envelope of eukaryotic cells. Disordered proteins, rich in phenylalanine-glycine repeat motifs (FG-nups), form the central transport channel. Understanding how nups are arranged in the interior of the NPC may explain how NPC functions as a selectivity filter for transport of large molecules and a sieve-like filter for diffusion of small molecules (<9 nm or 40 kDa). We employed molecular dynamics to model the structures formed by various assemblies of one kind of nup, namely the 609-aa-long FG domain of Nsp1 (Nsp1-FG). The simulations started from different initial conformations and geometrical arrangements of Nsp1-FGs. In all cases Nsp1-FGs collectively formed brush-like structures with bristles made of bu

SUBMITTER: Gamini R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3952814 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature