Nuclear pores are large
protein complexes that cross the
nuclear envelope, which is the double
membrane surrounding the
eukaryotic cell nucleus. There are about an average of 2000 nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), in the nuclear envelope of a vertebrate cell, but it varies depending on cell type and the stage in the life cycle. The proteins that make up the nuclear pore complex are known as
nucleoporins. About half of the nucleoporins typically contain
solenoid protein domains—either an
alpha solenoid or a
beta-propeller fold, or in some cases both as separate
structural domains. Each NPC contains at least 456 individual protein molecules and is composed of 30 distinct proteins (nucleoporins). The other half show structural characteristics typical of "natively unfolded" or
intrinsically disordered proteins, i.e. they are highly flexible proteins that lack ordered secondary structure. These disordered proteins are the
FG nucleoporins, so called because their amino-acid sequence contains many
phenylalanine—
glycine repeats.