Research identifies 3D structure of key nuclear pore building block
The genome cannot govern from its protective chamber, however, without knowing what’s going on in the realm beyond and having the ability to project power there. Guarding access to the nuclear chamber is the job of large, intimidating gatekeepers known as nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), which stud the nuclear membrane, filtering all of the biochemical information passing in or out. In new research, scientists have for the first time glimpsed in three dimensions an entire subcomplex of the NPC; it’s the key building block of this little-understood and evolutionarily ancient structure, an innovation fundamental to the development of nearly all multicellular life on Earth.