Interaction of nucleoporins with nuclear transport receptors: a structural perspective

Soluble nuclear transport receptors and stationary nucleoporins are at the heart of the nucleocytoplasmic transport machinery. A subset of nucleoporins contains characteristic and repetitive FG (phenylalanine-glycine) motifs, which are the basis for the permeability barrier of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) that controls transport of macromolecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. FG-motifs can interact with each other and/or with transport receptors, mediating their translocation across the NPC. The molecular details of homotypic and heterotypic FG-interactions have been analyzed at the structural level. In this review, we focus on the interactions of nucleoporins with nuclear transport receptors. Besides the conventional FG-motifs as interaction spots, a thorough structural analysis led us to identify additional similar motifs at the binding interface between nucleoporins and transport receptors. A detailed analysis of all known human nucleoporins revealed a large number of such phenylalanine-containing motifs that are not buried in the predicted 3D-structure of the respective protein but constitute part of the solvent-accessible surface area. Only nucleoporins that are rich in conventional FG-repeats are also enriched for these motifs. This additional layer of potential low-affinity binding sites on nucleoporins for transport receptors may have a strong impact on the interaction of transport complexes with the nuclear pore and, thus, the efficiency of nucleocytoplasmic transport.