Karyopherins and nuclear import.

G Blobel, Y M Chook

Journal: Current opinion in structural biology 2002;11(6):703-15

PMID: 11751052

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Proteins of the karyopherin alpha and karyopherin beta families play a central role in nucleocytoplasmic transport. Recently, crystal structures of karyopherin alpha and its complexes with nuclear localization signal peptides, a karyopherin beta2-Ran complex and complexes of full-length and fragments of karyopherin beta1 with import substrates, Ran and nucleoporins have been solved. These karyopherin structures provide valuable insights into understanding the molecular mechanism of nuclear import, especially substrate recognition, substrate release by GTPase and interactions with the nuclear pore complex.

Address: Laboratory of Cell Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA. [email protected]

DOI: 10.1016/s0959-440x(01)00264-0