Uncleavable Nup98-Nup96 is functional in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Essential nucleoporins Nup98 and Nup96 are coded by a single open reading frame, and produced by autopeptidase cleavage. The autocleavage site of Nup98-Nup96 is highly conserved in a wide range of organisms. To understand the importance of autocleavage, we examined a mutant that produces the Nup98-Nup96 joint molecule as a sole protein product of the nup189(+) gene in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Cells expressing only the joint molecule were found to be viable. This result indicates that autocleavage of Nup98-Nup96 is dispensable for cell growth, at least under normal culture conditions in S. pombe. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.