For a long time, the nuclear lamina was thought to be the sole scaffold for the attachment of chromosomes to the nuclear envelope (NE) in metazoans. However, accumulating evidence indicates that nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) comprised of nucleoporins (Nups) participate in this process as well. One of the Nups, Elys, initiates NPC reassembly at the end of mitosis. Elys directly binds the decondensing chromatin and interacts with the Nup107-160 subcomplex of NPCs, thus serving as a seeding point for the subsequent recruitment of other NPC subcomplexes and connecting chromatin with the re-forming NE. Recent studies also uncovered the important functions of Elys during interphase where it interacts with chromatin and affects its compactness. Therefore, Elys seems to be one of the key Nups regulating chromatin organization. This review summarizes the current state of our knowledge about the participation of Elys in the post-mitotic NPC reassembly as well as the role that Elys and other Nups play in the maintenance of genome architecture.
Keywords: Elys; Mel-28; NPC; chromatin; genome architecture; nuclear envelope; nucleoporin.