Gene expression is regulated at a variety of levels. From transcription to translation, the functional expression of a gene product is tightly and dynamically controlled. The nuclear pore complex (NPC), which mediates the import and export traffic of the nucleus, represents a linkage between mRNA production and translation in the cytoplasm by virtue of its transport function. In the nucleus, transcription, processing and export of mRNA are functionally linked processes. Recently, the NPC has been shown to be involved in genomic organization and the epigenetic regulation of transcription. Specifically, the genomic localization profile of NPC components was found to be enriched in highly expressed genes, and transcriptionally induced genes became associated with the NPC. This suggests that the NPC may play a central role in gene expression by providing a positional component to the regulation of certain genes. The proposed experiments combine yeast genetics; cell biology and molecular biology to determine the molecular and kinetic details of this gene-NPC interaction. Completion of this proposal will provide a more thorough understanding of gene expression and its regulation in eukaryotic cells. ? ?
