The nuclear envelope in genome organization, expression and stability

DNA is non-randomly arranged in the nucleus, with silent chromatin domains preferentially associating with inner nuclear membrane proteins and lamins in yeast and larger eukaryotes, respectively.Nuclear pore complexes, which are preferentially linked to actively transcribed genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, may have a more complex role in gene expression in larger eukaryotes.Studies conducted mainly in S. cerevisiae suggest that inner nuclear membrane proteins and nuclear pore complexes may have multiple roles in maintaining genome stability, including the suppression of aberrant recombination and rescue of collapsed replication forks.Chromosomal domains can be stabilized by inner nuclear membrane proteins in natural settings but nucleoplasmic or internal DNA loci may be targeted to the nuclear pore for DNA repair.Interactions between proteins of the inner and outer nuclear membrane link chromatin to cytoskeletal dynamics and have a role in meiotic chromosome pairing.