title: Lamins: the structure and protein complexes.
abstract: Lamins are nuclear intermediate filament (IF) proteins. They assemble to fibrous structures that are positioned between the inner nuclear membrane and the peripheral chromatin. A small fraction of lamins is also present in the nucleoplasm. Lamins are required to maintain the nuclear structure and, together with their associated proteins, are involved in most nuclear activities. Mutations in lamins cause >14 distinct diseases, called laminopathies, that include heart, muscle, fat and early aging diseases. However, it is not clear how lamins are organized in vivo and how the disease mutations affect lamin organization and functions. Here, we will review structural aspects of lamin assembly, discuss differences between peripheral and nucleoplasmic lamins and describe the protein complexes that lamins form.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. Electronic address: gru@vms.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Yosef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gruenbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Zurich University, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland; Department of Life Sciences and National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheeva 84120, Israel. Electronic address: omedalia@bioc.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Ohad
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Medalia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D034882:Lamins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D009685:Nuclear Envelope / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D034882:Lamins