Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Maurice Dekker, Erik Van der Giessen, Patrick R. Onck
Summary: The intrinsically disordered FG-Nups in the central channel of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) form a selective permeability barrier and undergo phase separation, with GLFG-Nups acting as hydrophobic stickers essential for the formation of FG-Nup condensates. The different FG-Nups can be divided into two classes based on their observed phase separation behavior: the central FG-Nups form a dynamic percolated network, while the peripheral FG-Nups likely form an entropic brush.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sheung Chun Ng, Abin Biswas, Trevor Huyton, Juergen Schuenemann, Simone Reber, Dirk Goerlich
Summary: The Nup98 FG repeat domains in the nuclear pore complex (NPC) capture nuclear transport receptors (NTRs) and condense into a selective phase with barrier properties. Shortening the FG spacers enhances phase cohesion and barrier tightness, while arginines promote phase entry through hydrophobic interactions/hydrogen-bonding. Mutations in the FG motifs affect NTR entry, and the antagonism between cohesion and FG interactions is crucial for transport selectivity.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biophysics
Mohaddeseh Peyro, Mohammad Soheilypour, Vikrum S. Nibber, Andrew M. Dickson, Mohammad R. K. Mofrad
Summary: FG Nups, as intrinsically disordered proteins, possess unique characteristics known as lpLCRs, which are crucial for nucleocytoplasmic transport and distinguish them from other disordered proteins.
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alessio Fragasso, Hendrik W. de Vries, John Andersson, Eli O. van der Sluis, Erik van der Giessen, Andreas Dahlin, Patrick R. Onck, Cees Dekker
Summary: This study successfully reconstituted the selective behavior of the NPC by introducing an artificial FG-Nup that mimics natural Nups, demonstrating that specific spacer sequences or spatial segregation of different FG-motif types are not needed to create selective NPCs.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biology
Luke K. Davis, Ian J. Ford, Bart W. Hoogenboom
Summary: The rapid transport of biological material to and from the cell nucleus is regulated by the nuclear pore complex (NPC), with a core permeability barrier consisting of FG Nups. Nuclear transport receptors (NTRs) facilitate transport by partitioning in the FG Nup assembly and make up a significant portion of proteins in the NPC barrier. Negative cooperativity was observed in the binding behavior of well-characterized NTRs, NTF2 and Imp-beta, to different planar assemblies of FG Nups, suggesting potential demixed phases of NTRs within the FG Nup assembly that could impact inter-NTR competition and separate transport pathways.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Eszter E. Najbauer, Sheung Chun Ng, Christian Griesinger, Dirk Goerlich, Loren B. Andreas
Summary: The cohesive FG domains in nuclear pore complexes form a selective permeability barrier, with nanoscopic insight into their interactions hindered by sequence heterogeneity. By using an engineered repetitive sequence and NMR spectroscopy, researchers were able to overcome this challenge and map the dynamics of cohesive interactions. The study found that the FG repeats remained disordered in both phase-separated and soluble states, with slow translation observed in phase-separated domains.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Yoichi Shinkai, Masahiro Kuramochi, Takamitsu Miyafusa
Summary: Phase separation in cells is mainly driven by the condensation and compartmentalization of biomacromolecules, with intrinsically disordered proteins containing FG repeat domain playing a key role. FG-NUPs, a type of nucleoporins, are known to form meshwork structures that regulate nucleo-cytoplasmic exchange, highlighting their importance in this process.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Niharika Nag, Timir Tripathi
Summary: An emerging pathophysiology associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the impairment of nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT), which can result from damage to the nuclear pore complex (NPC) or other factors involved in NCT. Recent findings highlight the involvement of tau protein in direct interactions with phenylalanine-glycine nucleoporins (FG-Nups) and the resulting impairment of NCT in AD. Targeting these interactions may lead to the identification of novel inhibitors and offer new therapeutic alternatives for AD treatment.
BRIEFINGS IN FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sheung Chun Ng, Dirk Goerlich
Summary: The permeability barrier of nuclear pore complexes plays a crucial role in nucleocytoplasmic transport. This barrier is assembled from cohesive FG repeat domains, particularly the charge-depleted FG domain of Nup98. Our study reveals that the FG domains of Nup98 exhibit LCST-type phase separation, and we provide comprehensive experimental data to quantitatively describe this behavior. A thermodynamic model is derived, which allows estimation of the contributions of enthalpy, entropy, and Delta G per repeat to phase separation and inter-repeat cohesion. These findings not only contribute to the understanding of barrier assembly, but also provide important insights for modeling NPC passage.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Nitin Kumar Singh, Pratyasha Bhardwaj, Mithun Radhakrishna
Summary: Predicting disordered regions in proteins is important for understanding their functions, dynamics, and interactions. The algorithm HydroDisPred (HDP) accurately predicts these regions using the fraction of hydrophobicity in each protein segment. HDP has been validated and found to be as effective as, if not better than, existing algorithms. It is a simple and effective method for identifying disordered regions in proteins and is not affected by the availability of training data.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION AND MODELING
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Bilal Khalil, Deepak Chhangani, Melissa C. Wren, Courtney L. Smith, Jannifer H. Lee, Xingli Li, Christian Puttinger, Chih-Wei Tsai, Gael Fortin, Dmytro Morderer, Junli Gao, Feilin Liu, Chun Kim Lim, Jingjiao Chen, Ching-Chieh Chou, Cara L. Croft, Amanda M. Gleixner, Christopher J. Donnelly, Todd E. Golde, Leonard Petrucelli, Bjorn Oskarsson, Dennis W. Dickson, Ke Zhang, James Shorter, Shige H. Yoshimura, Sami J. Barmada, Diego E. Rincon-Limas, Wilfried Rossoll
Summary: The study found that members of the nuclear import receptor protein family can reduce the formation of pathological TDP-43 aggregates. Using KPNB1 as a model, it was discovered that its activity depends on the prion-like C-terminal region of TDP-43, mediating co-aggregation with nucleoporins such as Nup62. KPNB1 acts as a molecular chaperone in these co-aggregates, reversing the aberrant phase transition of Nup62 and TDP-43.
MOLECULAR NEURODEGENERATION
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Bo Lin, Xin Ren, Zihao Chen, Hang Xiao, Baorong Xu, Ben Chong, Guidong Yang
Summary: The traditional surface-loading of cocatalysts on photocatalysts hinders the efficiency of H-2 generation, while the new concept of uniform-embeddable-distributed cocatalysts successfully enhances charge separation in ZnIn2S4 and achieves efficient H-2 generation under visible light irradiation.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yun Jung Yang, Danielle J. Mai, Shuaili Li, Melody A. Morris, Bradley D. Olsen
Summary: The study synthesized a nuclear pore-like protein by polymerizing the consensus repeat sequence of a yeast nucleoporin and explored the importance of positive net charge and alternating positive and negative charge within the hydrophilic spacer for recognition and selective transport. Mutations near and far from the interacting domain revealed the significance of spatial proximity of highly conserved residues in selective transport.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Changhao Zhai, Hui Fu, Jiachen Si, Zhenghua Huang, Lidong Xia
Summary: In this study, the origin and generation mechanisms of small magnetic flux ropes (SMFRs) in solar wind were analyzed and compared. The properties of SMFRs in different types of solar wind were found to be significantly different. The SMFRs were classified into hot-SMFRs, cold-SMFRs, and normal-SMFRs based on their O7+/O6+ ratios. The characteristics of hot-SMFRs and cold-SMFRs are different from normal-SMFRs and background solar wind, while normal-SMFRs may have dual origins.
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Biology
Qingxiu Hu, Xiaoqi Huang, Yabin Jin, Rui Zhang, Aimin Zhao, Yiping Wang, Chenyun Zhou, Weixin Liu, Xunwei Liu, Chunhua Li, Guangyi Fan, Min Zhuo, Xiaoning Wang, Fei Ling, Wei Luo
Summary: This study provides the first physical mapping of MHC and KIR gene regions in Vietnamese cynomolgus macaques. It identifies four functional Mafa-B loci and high-frequency alleles. These findings contribute to the precise selection of animals with specific genetic markers for future medical research.
Article
Cell Biology
Petra Popken, Ali Ghavami, Patrick R. Onck, Bert Poolman, Liesbeth M. Veenhoff
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE CELL
(2015)
Article
Polymer Science
Simona Maccarrone, Ali Ghavami, Olaf Holderer, Christine Scherzinger, Peter Lindner, Walter Richtering, Dieter Richter, Roland G. Winkler
Article
Biophysics
Ali Ghavami, Liesbeth M. Veenhoff, Erik van der Giessen, Patrick R. Onck
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2014)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ali Ghavami, Erik van der Giessen, Patrick R. Onck
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL THEORY AND COMPUTATION
(2013)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
M. Mondali, A. Abedian, A. Ghavami
MATERIALS & DESIGN
(2009)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
A. Ghavami, A. Abedian, M. Mondali
MATERIALS & DESIGN
(2010)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ali Ghavami, Erik van der Giessen, Patrick R. Onck