Cell nuclei harbor factories that transcribe genes
Our genetic heritage is contained—and protected—in the nucleus of the cells that compose us. Copies of the DNA exit the nucleus to be read and translated into proteins in the cell cytoplasm. The transit between the nucleus and the cytoplasm takes place through the nuclear pores, genuine "customs agents" that monitor the import-export between these two compartments. Françoise Stutz, professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and her team have just discovered how nuclear pores also regulate the production speed of these DNA copies. This work, published in the journal Molecular Cell, reveals a new role for each nucleus' several hundred pores, which constitute as many microscopic factories of gene transcription.