Prize Lectureship

Prize Lecturer 2000 - Dr Iain W. Mattaj

How to be a Eukaryote - Mechanisms and regulation of traffic between the cell nucleus and cytoplasm.

In 2000, Dr Iain W. Mattaj, Scientific Coordinator of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, delivered the Prize Lectures in Edinburgh and Dundee.

The nucleus is the defining feature of a eukaryotic cell. Major aspects of cellular metabolism - such as the replication and repair of DNA and the transcription and processing of RNA - occur within the nucleus, which is separated from the surrounding cytoplasm by the nuclear envelope. The cytoplasm is the site of protein synthesis. This compartmentalisation of the cell's major synthetic activities necessitates the movement of large numbers of large molecules between the nucleus and cytoplasm. This traffic moves through aqueous channels - nuclear pore complexes - in the nuclear envelope.

Nucleocytoplasmic traffic is controlled by import and export receptors that recognise cargo molecules as a result of the nuclear 'signals' that these molecules carry. This signal, or 'address' system, partly explains how macromolecules are targetted. However, it also creates a 'chicken and egg' problem, as the very molecules that constitute the nucleus are also targetted there by the same signals.

In his lecture, Dr Mattaj discussed how the results of research on the mode of function of nucleocytoplasmic transport receptors suggest a solution to this conundrum.

An edited version of the text of the lecture is available for download in pdf format.[Download file]

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Prize Lecture 2005 : Prize Lecture 2004 : Prize Lecture 2003 : Prize Lecture 2002 : There was no Prize Lecture in 2001 : Prize Lecture 1999