image: A key component of the nuclear pore complex -- a Y-shaped cluster of proteins that helps determine what gets in and what stays out of a cell’s nucleus -- was first photographed and modeled at Rockefeller in 2009. But fundamental questions about how the structures were aligned in relation to the rest of the 30-protein complex remained. Researchers at Rockefeller University have now developed a new technique that uses polarized light microscopy to help answer questions about the proteins’ orientation. The results demonstrate that the Y-shaped subcomplexes are arranged head to tail (left) and that an alternative “fence-post” model was not correct. Here, Sandy Simon, head of the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics, and graduate student Claire Atkinson, review data from their experiments. view more
Credit: Zach Veilleux / Rockefeller University