NPCs (white) move to the posterior side of the nucleus after deflagellation (right).

García-Blanco/Elsevier

Yamada/Macmillan

Daniel Colón-Ramos, Mariano A. García-Blanco (Duke University, Durham, NC), and colleagues demonstrate in a recent article that Chlamydomonas nuclear architecture changes to accommodate cytoplasmic needs.

Chlamydomonas is a highly polarized cell that offers a unique system to study changes in nuclear shape. Loss of this algae's flagella (after certain chemical or mechanical stresses) causes the nucleus to adopt a pear-like shape and take an anterior position in the cell, nearer where the flagella once sat.

García-Blanco wondered whether sites of transcription of the β tubulin gene, which is strongly up-regulated upon deflagellation, move closer to the flagella to expedite their rebuilding. Immunocytochemistry and electron microscopy revealed that the β tubulin gene did not move from its posterior nuclear position. But the experiments did uncover an unexpected asymmetry of nuclear pore...

The Rockefeller University Press
2003
The Rockefeller University Press
2003
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