A novel nuclear pore protein Nup82p which specifically binds to a fraction of Nsp1p

Nsp1p interacts with nuclear pore proteins Nup49p, Nup57p and Nic96p in a stable complex which participates in nucleocytoplasmic transport. An additional p80 component is associated with Nsp1p, but does not co- purify with tagged Nup57p, Nup49p and Nic96p. The p80 gene was cloned and encodes a novel essential nuclear pore protein named Nup82p. Immunoprecipitation of tagged Nup82p reveals that it is physically associated with a fraction of Nsp1p which is distinct from Nsp1p found in a complex with Nup57p, Nic96p and Nup49p. The Nup82 protein can be divided into at least two different domains both required for the essential function, but it is only the carboxy-terminal domain, exhibiting heptad repeats, which binds to Nsp1p. Yeast cells depleted of Nup82p stop cell growth and concomitantly show a defect in poly(A)+RNA export, but no major alterations of nuclear envelope structure and nuclear pore density are seen by EM. This shows that Nsp1p participates in multiple interactions at the NPC and thus has the capability to physically interact with different NPC structures.