Staying limber is crucial not just for yoga enthusiasts, but for cells installing nuclear pores, as Scarcelli et al. report on page 799. They identify a protein that helps the passageways assemble by boosting the flexibility of the nuclear membrane.
Every molecule that enters or exits the nucleus passes through a nuclear pore complex. How cells build these channels remains murky, however. Scarcelli et al. chanced on a key contributor because of their interest in how cells export RNA from the nucleus. That process goes awry in yeast missing the protein Apq12.
Cooling Apq12-lacking cells inhibited their growth, the researchers found, in part because mutant cells can't assemble nuclear pores. Instead, many of their pore proteins, particularly those from the filaments, clustered in the cytoplasm. Warming the cells allowed them to fashion complexes again and sent the mislocalized proteins back to become part of...
