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Published Online January 4, 2001
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1057661

Reports

Submitted on November 21, 2000
Accepted on December 21, 2000

Role of Importin-ß in Coupling Ran to Downstream Targets in Microtubule Assembly

Christiane Wiese 1 , Andrew Wilde 1 , Mary Shannon Moore 2 , Stephen A. Adam 3 , Andreas Merdes 4* , and Yixian Zheng 5*

1 Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
2 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030
3 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL 60611-3072, USA
4 Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, ICMB, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, United Kingdom
5 Department of Embryology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zheng{at}ciwemb.edu.

The guanosine triphosphatase Ran stimulates assembly of microtubule asters and spindles in mitotic Xenopus egg extracts. A carboxy-terminal region of the nuclear-mitotic apparatus protein (NuMA), a nuclear protein required for organizing mitotic spindle poles, mimics Ran's ability to induce asters. This NuMA fragment also specifically interacted with the nuclear transport factor, importin-ß. We show that importin-ß is an inhibitor of microtubule aster assembly in Xenopus egg extracts, and that Ran regulates the interaction between importin-ß and NuMA. Importin-ß therefore links NuMA to regulation by Ran. This suggests that similar mechanisms regulate nuclear import during interphase and spindle assembly during mitosis.


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