Cell’s core pore structure solved

From Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology

GRAND ENTRANCE. The nuclear-pore complex (center) controls what can enter and exit a cell’s nucleus. Cutaway views reveal the pore’s elaborate architecture. M. Rout/Rockefeller Univ.

In a challenge that’s like solving a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, scientists have worked out how 456 proteins fit together to form a doughnut-shaped gateway to the cell’s nucleus.