Transport Through The Nuclear Pore Complex
Small particles (< ~40kDa) are able to pass through the nuclear pore complex by passive diffusion. Larger particles are also able to pass through the large diameter of the pore but at almost negligible rates. Efficient passage through the complex requires several protein factors. Karyopherins, which may act as importins or exportins are part of the Importin-β super-family which all share a similar three-dimensional structure.
Three models have been suggested to explain the translocation mechanism:
- Affinity gradients along the central plug
- Brownian affinity gating
- Selective phase
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Pore
Famous quotes containing the words transport, nuclear, pore and/or complex:
“One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and ... powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“Mistresses are like books; if you pore upon them too much, they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly, you are the fitter for conversation by ‘em.”
—William Wycherley (1640–1716)
“The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe.... A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)