title: Nuclear matrix proteins as structural and functional components of the mitotic apparatus.
abstract: The eukaryotic nucleus is a membrane-enclosed compartment containing the genome and associated organelles supported by a complex matrix of nonhistone proteins. Identified as the nuclear matrix, this component maintains spatial order and provides the structural framework needed for DNA replication, RNA synthesis and processing, nuclear transport, and steroid hormone action. During mitosis, the nucleoskeleton and associated chromatin is efficiently dismantled, packaged, partitioned, and subsequently reassembled into daughter nuclei. The dramatic dissolution of the nucleus is accompanied by the assembly of a mitotic apparatus required to facilitate the complex events associated with nuclear division. Until recently, little was known about the fate or disposition of nuclear matrix proteins during mitosis. The availability of specific molecular probes and imaging techniques, including confocal microscopy and improved immunoelectron microscopy using resinless sections and related procedures, has enabled investigators to identify and map the distribution of nuclear matrix proteins throughout the cell cycle. This chapter will review the structure, function, and distribution of the protein NuMA (nuclear matrix mitotic apparatus) and other nuclear matrix proteins that depart the nucleus during the interphase/mitosis transition to become structural and functional components within specific domains of the mitotic apparatus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Brinkley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D034961:Antigens, Nuclear; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002503:Centromere / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002843:Chromatin / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D034521:Nuclear Matrix-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D034961:Antigens, Nuclear; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; C050045:NUMA1 protein, human; D034521:Nuclear Matrix-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins