Size and Complexity
The entire nuclear pore complex (NPC) has a diameter of about 120 nanometers, the diameter of the opening (functional diameter) is about 9 nanometers wide and its "depth" is about 200 nanometers. It had been suggested that the pore can be dilated to around 39 nanometers to allow molecule passage. The molecular mass of the mammalian NPC is about 120 megadaltons and it contains approximately 30 different protein components, each in multiple copies. In contrast, the yeast model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae is smaller, weighing only 66MDa.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Pore
Famous quotes containing the words size and/or complexity:
“One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.”
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