In-situ molecular architecture dynamism of the nuclear pore complex

Molecular machines rarely work in isolation; instead, they form networks in their native cellular context. To fully understand these networks and the functional conformations of these machines, approaches to determine structures of biomolecular complexes in situ are needed. Foremost to this need are giant machines such as the Nuclear Pore Complex (NPC), a >50 MDa complex embedded in the nuclear envelope, made of ∼550 nucleoporins that tightly control the exchange of macromolecules between the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm, thus playing critical roles in gene regulation.