Centrosomes (arrowheads) stray from the nucleus if emerin is missing (bottom).
Besides harboring the genome, the nucleus is becoming increasingly recognized as a load-bearing structure. By hooking to the cytoskeleton, the nuclear envelope probably helps to absorb mechanical forces. The links that hook the nuclear envelope to the actin and intermediate filament networks are known. Now, the microtubule link is identified as emerin.
In cells lacking emerin, the microtubule-organizing center—the centrosome—drifted away from its usual nucleus-adjacent spot. In normal cells, emerin bound to β-tubulin, a component of both microtubules and centrosomes. Since the centrosome normally lies within 1.5 μm of the nucleus, emerin probably hooks directly to centrosomes...
