Grant: Project Grant

Regulating the expression of its genes is an essential task for any living organism. In eukaryotic cells, a membrane impermeable to large molecules separates the site where the genetic information is stored (the nucleus) from the site where the information is translated into protein (cytoplasm), the functional molecules executing all cellular processes. After the genetic information stored in the DNA is copied into a messenger molecule, called RNA, RNA has to exit the nucleus and reach the cytoplasm to get translated. The only path to reach the site of protein synthesis is through the nuclear pore complex (NPC), large macromolecular complexes embedded in the nuclear membrane. In this project, we will use different molecular biology, genetic, proteomic and microscopy based approaches to study the mechanism by which the nuclear basket, a substructure of the NPC, regulates the transport of some RNAs, but not all RNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Understanding this process is important to gain a better understanding of many diseases, as mutations in the proteins involved in this process have been found mutated in patients suffering from various diseases such as cancer or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).