Genetic approaches to nuclear pore structure and function

The major features of nucleocytoplasmic transport through nuclear pore complexes are conserved from yeast to humans. This transport machinery, which includes the 125 MDa nuclear pore complex structure, has been molecularly dissected in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by genetic approaches. Here, we summarize the genetic analyses used to elucidate structure-function relationships within this large supramolecular assembly.