Volume 30, No 6, Jun 2020

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 30 Issue 6, June 2020: 520-531   |  Open Access

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Structure of the cytoplasmic ring of the Xenopus laevis nuclear pore complex by cryo-electron microscopy single particle analysis

Gaoxingyu Huang^1,† , Yanqing Zhang^2,3,† , Xuechen Zhu^2,3,† , Chao Zeng^4,† , Qifan Wang¹ , Qiang Zhou^2,3 , Qinghua Tao¹ , Minhao Liu¹ , Jianlin Lei¹ , Chuangye Yan¹ , Yigong Shi^1,2,3,4,*

¹Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology & Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;
²Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China;
³Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
⁴Tsinghua University-Peking University Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
^†These authors contributed equally
Correspondence: Yigong Shi(syg@westlake.edu.cn)

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) exhibits structural plasticity and has only been characterized at local resolutions of up to 15 Å for the cytoplasmic ring (CR). Here we present a single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of the CR from Xenopus laevis NPC at average resolutions of 5.5–7.9 Å, with local resolutions reaching 4.5 Å. Improved resolutions allow identification and placement of secondary structural elements in the majority of the CR components. The two Y complexes in each CR subunit interact with each other and associate with those from flanking subunits, forming a circular scaffold. Within each CR subunit, the Nup358-containing region wraps around the stems of both Y complexes, likely stabilizing the scaffold. Nup205 connects the short arms of the two Y complexes and associates with the stem of a neighboring Y complex. The Nup214-containing region uses an extended coiled-coil to link Nup85 of the two Y complexes and protrudes into the axial pore of the NPC. These previously uncharacterized structural features reveal insights into NPC assembly.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-020-0319-4

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