Probing High Permeability of Nuclear Pore Complexes by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy: Ca2+ Effects on Transport Barriers

Autor: Niraja Kurapati, Shigeru Amemiya, Kevin C. Leonard, Pavithra Pathirathna, Erin R. Gramm, Dylan T. Jantz, Ryan J. Balla
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Analytical Chemistry. 91:5446-5454
ISSN: 1520-6882
0003-2700
Popis: The nuclear pore complex (NPC) solely mediates molecular transport between the nucleus and cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell to play important biological and biomedical roles. However, it is not well-understood chemically how this biological nanopore selectively and efficiently transports various substances, including small molecules, proteins, and RNAs by using transport barriers that are rich in highly disordered repeats of hydrophobic phenylalanine and glycine intermingled with charged amino acids. Herein, we employ scanning electrochemical microscopy to image and measure the high permeability of NPCs to small redox molecules. The effective medium theory demonstrates that the measured permeability is controlled by diffusional translocation of probe molecules through water-filled nanopores without steric or electrostatic hindrance from hydrophobic or charged regions of transport barriers, respectively. However, the permeability of NPCs is reduced by a low millimolar concentration of Ca2+, which can interac...
Databáze: OpenAIRE