The nuclear envelope (NE) is a bilayer membrane that separates and physically isolates the genetic material from the cytoplasm. Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are cylindrical structures embedded in the NE and remain the sole channel of communication between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The interior of NPCs contains densely packed intrinsically disordered FG-nucleoporins (FG-Nups), consequently forming a permeability barrier. This barrier facilitates the selection and specificity of the cargoes that are imported, exported, or shuttled through the NPCs. Recent studies have revealed that FG-Nups undergo the process of liquid-liquid phase separation into liquid droplets. Moreover, these liquid droplets mimic the permeability barrier observed in the interior of NPCs. This review highlights the phase separation of FG-Nups occurring inside the NPCs rooted in the NE. We discuss the phase separation of FG-Nups and compare the different aspects contributing to their phase separation. Furthermore, several diseases caused by the aberrant phase separation of the proteins are examined with respect to NEs. By understanding the fundamental process of phase separation at the nuclear membrane, the review seeks to explore the parameters influencing this phenomenon as well as its importance, ultimately paving the way for better research on the structure-function relationship of biomolecular condensates.
Pubmed ID: 34995711 RIS Download
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Collection of data of protein sequence and functional information. Resource for protein sequence and annotation data. Consortium for preservation of the UniProt databases: UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB), UniProt Reference Clusters (UniRef), and UniProt Archive (UniParc), UniProt Proteomes. Collaboration between European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Protein Information Resource. Swiss-Prot is a curated subset of UniProtKB.
View all literature mentionsWeb search tool to find regions of similarity between biological sequences. Program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates statistical significance. Used for identifying homologous sequences.
View all literature mentionsSoftware tool to calculate various physicochemical parameters for given protein stored in Swiss-Prot or TrEMBL or for user entered protein sequence. Protein can either be pecified as Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL accession number or ID, or in form of raw sequence. Computed parameters include molecular weight, theoretical pI, amino acid composition, atomic composition, extinction coefficient, estimated half-life, instability index, aliphatic index and grand average of hydropathicity.
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