Artificial nanopores that mimic the transport selectivity of the nuclear pore complex

From Q-bio

Passage of materials across the nuclear envelope is governed by an effective and robust gate, the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Natively disordered proteins, termed FG nups, line and partially fill the ~30nm wide central conduit and present a selective barrier for transport. This barrier can be overcome by the specific binding of transport molecules to the FG nups. To test whether no more than a passageway and a lining of FG nups are sufficient for selective transport, we designed an artificial nano-device that incorporates just these two elements. We demonstrate that this simple nano-device exhibits key properties of the NPC.