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The nuclear lamina is a meshwork of intermediate-type filaments

Nature volume 323, pages 560–564 (1986)Cite this article

Abstract

The nuclear lamina, a protein meshwork lining the nucleoplasmic surface of the inner nuclear membrane1,2, is thought to provide a framework for organizing nuclear envelope structure3 and an anchoring site at the nuclear periphery for interphase chromatin3–5. In several higher eukaryotic cells, the lamina appears to be a polymer comprised mainly of one to three immunologically related polypeptides of relative molecular mass (Mr) 60,000–75,000 (60–70K) termed lamins1,2. Three lamins (A, B, and C) are typically present in mammalian somatic cells. Previous studies on nuclear envelopes of rat liver6 and Xenopus oocytes7 suggested that the lamina has a fibrillar or filamentous substructure. Interestingly, protein sequences recently deduced for human lamins A and C from complementary DNA clones8,9 indicate that both of these polypeptides contain a region of ∼350 amino acids very similar in sequence to the coiled-coil α-helical rod domain that characterizes all intermediate-type filament (IF) proteins10,11. Here we analyse the supramolecular organization of the native nuclear lamina and the structure and assembly properties of purified lamins, and show that the lamins constitute a previously unrecognized class of IF polypeptides.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Ueli Aebi

    Present address: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, CH-4056, Switzerland

  2. Loren Buhle

    Present address: Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, USA

Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe St, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA

    Ueli Aebi, Julie Cohn, Loren Buhle & Larry Gerace

Authors
  1. Ueli Aebi
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  2. Julie Cohn
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  3. Loren Buhle
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  4. Larry Gerace
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Aebi, U., Cohn, J., Buhle, L. et al. The nuclear lamina is a meshwork of intermediate-type filaments. Nature 323, 560–564 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/323560a0

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