Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are multisubunit protein entities embedded into the nuclear envelope (NE). Here, we examine the in vivo dynamics of the essential Drosophila nucleoporin Nup107 and several other NE-associated proteins during NE and NPCs disassembly and reassembly that take place within each mitosis. During both the rapid mitosis of syncytial embryos and the more conventional mitosis of larval neuroblasts, Nup107 is gradually released from the NE, but it remains partially confined to the nuclear (spindle) region up to late prometaphase, in contrast to nucleoporins detected by wheat germ agglutinin and lamins. We provide evidence that in all Drosophila cells, a structure derived from the NE persists throughout metaphase and early anaphase. Finally, we examined the dynamics of the spindle checkpoint proteins Mad2 and Mad1. During mitotic exit, Mad2 and Mad1 are actively imported back from the cytoplasm into the nucleus after the NE and NPCs have reformed, but they reassociate with the NE only later in G1, concomitantly with the recruitment of the basket nucleoporin Mtor (the Drosophila orthologue of vertebrate Tpr). Surprisingly, Drosophila Nup107 shows no evidence of localization to kinetochores, despite the demonstrated importance of this association in mammalian cells.
INTRODUCTIONIn eukaryotes, the nuclear envelope (NE) defines the limits between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The outer NE membrane is considered to be structurally and functionally part of the endoplasmic reticulum network, whereas the inner membrane, with its distinct protein composition, provides anchoring points for the chromatin and nuclear lamina. Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are embedded at the points of fusion between the inner and outer NE membrane and represent the sole channels of transport across the NE. NPCs are composed of multiple copies of ϳ30 different proteins termed nucleoporins (Nups), most of which are organized into subcomplexes that associate with each other to build up the mature NPCs (for reviews, see Hetzer et al., 2005;Schwartz, 2005;Lim and Fahrenkrog, 2006;Tran and Wente, 2006). During cell division, the NE and NPCs are subjected to major rearrangements. However, the extent to which the NE and NPCs disassemble at mitotic entry varies among organisms (for reviews, see Margalit et al., 2005;Prunuske and Ullman, 2006). Unlike in most yeast and fungi, characterized by a "closed mitosis," NE disassembly is required in animal cells to allow spindle microtubule access to chromosomes. In vertebrates, cell division leads to complete NE breakdown at the prophase-prometaphase transition. During this "open mitosis," integral membrane proteins of the NE and the soluble subcomplexes of the NPCs redistribute throughout the endoplasmic reticulum and the mitotic cytoplasm (for reviews, see Hetzer et al., 2005;Margalit et al., 2005;Prunuske and Ullman, 2006). In Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, however, the NE only partially disassembles near spindle poles in early mitosis. NPCs disassemble during prometapha...