Alba GONZALEZ ESTEVEZ

The nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are huge macromolecular assemblies anchored within the nuclear envelope to provide specific gates that allow and regulate all exchanges between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Beyond their key function in nucleocytoplasmic transport, several NPC constituents (the nucleoporins, Nups) have been demonstrated to also play important roles in other cellular processes including cell division, genetic stability, gene regulation, cell differentiation, and senescence. In particular, the Nup107-160 complex (also named Y-complex), which is a main structural component of the NPCs, localizes at kinetochores where it contributes to proper chromosome segregation. Interestingly, one of the Nups of this complex, Nup133 is essential for mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) differentiation while it is dispensable in pluripotent ESCs. The specific aim of this project is to characterize the functions and direct partners of Y-Nups during cell cycle progression and cell differentiation, with the long-term aim to understand to which extent Y-Nups-dependent coordinated regulations of these processes may contribute to the proper development of multicellular organisms. More precisely, I will focus my studies on Seh1, a protein know to contribute to cell cycle progression but whose function in stem cell differentiation has not yet been investigated.