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A core problem in nuclear assembly

Chromosomes can exist outside the nucleus in rupture-prone structures called micronuclei. It emerges that micronuclei are fragile because their outer layer lacks some nuclear-envelope components.
  1. Matthias Samwer

    1. Matthias Samwer is at Boehringer Ingelheim, 1120 Vienna, Austria.

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  2. Daniel W. Gerlich

    1. Daniel W. Gerlich is at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna BioCenter, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

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The genome sequencing of some cancer cells revealed the occurrence of large-scale DNA rearrangements that are characteristic of a single catastrophic event1. This type of genetic abnormality is termed chromothripsis. It occurs in many types of human cancer, and is thought to drive tumour formation2. Chromothripsis can arise as a result of cell division if individual chromosomes do not join the other chromosomes within the newly formed nuclei but instead form rupture-prone structures called micronuclei3,4. Writing in Nature, Liu et al.5 report that the nuclear-envelope structure that encloses a micronucleus lacks some of the components of the nuclear envelope that surrounds a nucleus. They propose a mechanism for how this might occur, and how it might account for micronuclear fragility.

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Nature 561, 467-468 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06668-8

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