Life at the edge: the nuclear envelope and human disease

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 575-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Burke ◽  
Colin L. Stewart
2021 ◽  
Vol 134 (19) ◽  

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Anne Janssen is first author on ‘ Direct observation of aggregate-triggered selective autophagy in human cells’, published in JCS. Anne conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Lukas Kapitein's lab at Division of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands. She is now a FEBS long-term fellow in the lab of Delphine Larrieu at Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Cambridge, UK, where she is currently interested in the nuclear envelope and how problems in maintaining nuclear integrity can cause human disease.


Physiology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Muchir ◽  
Howard J. Worman

Mutations in nuclear lamins A and C, intermediate filament proteins of the nuclear envelope, cause diseases affecting various tissues and the aging process. We review what is known about nuclear lamin function and the different diseases caused by mutations in lamins A and C and associated inner nuclear membrane proteins.


Author(s):  
L. M. Lewis

The effects of colchicine on extranuclear microtubules associated with the macronucleus of Paramecium bursaria were studied to determine the possible role that these microtubules play in controlling the shape of the macronucleus. In the course of this study, the ultrastructure of the nuclear events of binary fission in control cells was also studied.During interphase in control cells, the micronucleus contains randomly distributed clumps of condensed chromatin and microtubular fragments. Throughout mitosis the nuclear envelope remains intact. During micronuclear prophase, cup-shaped microfilamentous structures appear that are filled with condensing chromatin. Microtubules are also present and are parallel to the division axis.


Author(s):  
Joachim R. Sommer ◽  
Nancy R. Wallace

After Howell (1) had shown that ruthenium red treatment of fixed frog skeletal muscle caused collapse of the intermediate cisternae of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), forming a pentalaminate structure by obi iterating the SR lumen, we demonstrated that the phenomenon involves the entire SR including the nuclear envelope and that it also occurs after treatment with other cations, including calcium (2,3,4).From these observations we have formulated a hypothesis which states that intracellular calcium taken up by the SR at the end of contraction causes the M rete to collapse at a certain threshold concentration as the first step in a subsequent centrifugal zippering of the free SR toward the junctional SR (JSR). This would cause a) bulk transport of SR contents, such as calcium and granular material (4) into the JSR and, b) electrical isolation of the free SR from the JSR.


Author(s):  
Hannah R. Brown ◽  
Anthony F. Nostro ◽  
Halldor Thormar

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a slowly progressing disease of the CNS in children which is caused by measles virus. Ferrets immunized with measles virus prior to inoculation with the cell associated, syncytiogenic D.R. strain of SSPE virus exhibit characteristics very similar to the human disease. Measles virus nucleocapsids are present, high measles antibody titers are found in the sera and inflammatory lesions are prominent in the brains. Measles virus specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) is present in the brain,and IgG/ albumin ratios indicate that the antibodies are synthesized within the CNS.


Author(s):  
C. N. Sun ◽  
C. Araoz ◽  
H. J. White

The ultrastructure of a cerebral primitive neuroectodermal tumor has been reported previously. In the present case, we will present some unusual previously unreported membranous structures and alterations in the cytoplasm and nucleus of the tumor cells.Specimens were cut into small pieces about 1 mm3 and immediately fixed in 4% glutaraldehyde in phosphate buffer for two hours, then post-fixed in 1% buffered osmium tetroxide for one hour. After dehydration, tissues were embedded in Epon 812. Thin sections were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate.In the cytoplasm of the tumor cells, we found paired cisternae (Fig. 1) and annulate lamellae (Fig. 2) noting that the annulate lamellae were sometimes associated with the outer nuclear envelope (Fig. 3). These membranous structures have been reported in other tumor cells. In our case, mitochondrial to nuclear envelope fusions were often noted (Fig. 4). Although this phenomenon was reported in an oncocytoma, their frequency in the present study is quite striking.


Author(s):  
R. N. Tomas

Peridinium balticum appears to be unusual among the dinoflagellates in that it possesses two DNA-containing structures as determined by histochemical techniques. Ultrastructurally, the two dissimilar nuclei are contained within different protoplasts; one of the nuclei is characteristically dinophycean in nature, while the other is characteristically eucaryotic. The chloroplasts observed within P. balticum are intrinsic to an eucaryotic photosynthetic endosymbiont and not to the dinoflagellate. These organelles are surrounded by outpocketings of endoplasmic reticulum which are continuous with the eucaryotic nuclear envelope and are characterized by thylakoids composed of three apposed lamellae. Girdle lamellae and membranebounded interlamellar pyrenoids are also present. Only the plasmalemma of the endosymbiont segregates its protoplast from that of the dinophycean cytoplasm. The exact nature of this symbiotic relationship is at present not known.


Author(s):  
I. Brent Heath

Detailed ultrastructural analysis of fungal mitotic systems and cytoplasmic microtubules might be expected to contribute to a number of areas of general interest in addition to the direct application to the organisms of study. These areas include possibly fundamental general mechanisms of mitosis; evolution of mitosis; phylogeny of organisms; mechanisms of organelle motility and positioning; characterization of cellular aspects of microtubule properties and polymerization control features. This communication is intended to outline our current research results relating to selected parts of the above questions.Mitosis in the oomycetes Saprolegnia and Thraustotheca has been described previously. These papers described simple kinetochores and showed that the kineto- chores could probably be used as markers for the poorly defined chromosomes. Kineto- chore counts from serially sectioned prophase mitotic nuclei show that kinetochore replication precedes centriole replication to yield a single hemispherical array containing approximately the 4 n number of kinetochore microtubules diverging from the centriole associated "pocket" region of the nuclear envelope (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
Brian Burke

The nuclear envelope is a complex membrane structure that forms the boundary of the nuclear compartment in eukaryotes. It regulates the passage of macromolecules between the two compartments and may be important for organizing interphase chromosome architecture. In interphase animal cells it forms a remarkably stable structure consisting of a double membrane ouerlying a protein meshwork or lamina and penetrated by nuclear pore complexes. The latter form the channels for nucleocytoplasmic exchange of macromolecules, At the onset of mitosis, however, it rapidly disassembles, the membranes fragment to yield small vesicles and the lamina, which is composed of predominantly three polypeptides, lamins R, B and C (MW approx. 74, 68 and 65 kDa respectiuely), breaks down. Lamins B and C are dispersed as monomers throughout the mitotic cytoplasm, while lamin B remains associated with the nuclear membrane vesicles.


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