Editor's Summary
31 August 2006
Right Place, Right Time
For proteins to carry out their role in cells, they must be located in the right cellular compartment. This positioning is usually achieved via discrete signal sequences in proteins that target them to the correct location. Many of these signal sequences have been fully characterized, but those that destine a protein to the inner nuclear membrane were a notable exception. A new study shows that targeting of integral inner nuclear membrane proteins involves signal sequences similar to those that target soluble proteins into the nucleus. This result is surprising, and opens up the study of a whole class of inner nuclear membrane proteins that have a role in gene regulation, and are linked to various human diseases.
News and Views: Cell biology: Taking a turn into the nucleus
How soluble proteins get into the cell nucleus is known in great detail, but how membrane proteins make it into the inner nuclear membrane has long been an enigma. The two processes in fact turn out to be related.
Ulrike Kutay and Petra Mühlhäusser
doi:10.1038/nature05173
Article: Karyopherin-mediated import of integral inner nuclear membrane proteins
Megan C. King, C. Lusk and Günter Blobel
doi:10.1038/nature05075
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (390K) | Supplementary information