Kinetic cooperativity resolves bidirectional clogging within the nuclear pore complex
As the main gatekeeper of the nucleocytoplasmic transport in eukaryotic cells, the nuclear pore complex (NPC) faces the daunting task of facilitating the bidirectional transport of a high volume of macromolecular cargoes while ensuring the selectivity, speed, and efficiency of this process. The competition between opposing nuclear import and export fluxes passing through the same channel is expected to pose a major challenge to transport efficiency. It has been suggested that phase separation-like radial segregation of import and export fluxes within the assembly of intrinsically disordered proteins that line the NPC pore could be a mechanism for ensuring efficient bidirectional transport.