Fission yeast essential nuclear pore protein nup211 regulates the transcriptome

While nuclear pore proteins mediate nucleo-cytoplasmic transport, they can have important roles in other activities such as transcription, chromatin organization, and cell cycle regulation. The fission yeast nuclear pore protein nup211 localizes to the nuclear basket and is essential for cell viability. Nup211 is important for RNA quality control and the nuclear export of polyadenylated RNAs. Interestingly, several nup211 orthologs have also been shown to regulate transcription at the chromatin level. Although nup211 preferentially associates with heterochromatin, it is unclear whether it modulates transcription. To further investigate the functions of nup211, we constructed a strain in which nup211 expression can be reduced through the addition of thiamine to the growth medium (nup211-so) and examined how cells were affected when nup211 protein was reduced. Down-regulation of nup211 led to severe defects in cell cycle regulation, including septation and cytokinesis. Using RNA-Seq and RT-qPCR, we revealed that loss of nup211 significantly altered global gene expression. Our findings suggest a new role for nup211 in regulating the transcriptome. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data obtained from nup211-so cells grown in the absence (control) or presence of thiamine. Three biological replicates were prepared for both treatment conditions.