Context matters. It’s true for many facets of life, including the tiny molecular machines that perform vital functions inside our cells.
Scientists often purify cellular components, such as proteins or organelles, in order to examine them individually. However, a new study published today in the journal Nature suggests that this practice can drastically alter the components in question.
The researchers devised a method to study a large, donut-shaped structure called the nuclear pore complex (NPC) directly inside cells. Their results revealed that the pore had larger dimensions than previously thought, emphasizing the importance of analyzing complex molecules in their native environments.
“We’ve shown that the cellular environment has a significant impact on large structures like the NPC, which was something we weren’t expecting when we started,” says Thomas Schwartz, the Boris Magasanik Professor of Biology at MIT and the study’s co-senior author. “Scientists have generally thought that large molecules are stable enough to maintain their fundamental properties both inside and outside a cell, but our findings turn that assumption on its head.”
