Importin
protein family
Importin is a type of karyopherin involved in the nuclear transport of moving protein molecules from a cell's cytoplasm to the nucleus. It does so by binding to specific recognition sequences, called nuclear localization sequences (NLS).
Importin has two subunits, importin α and importin β. Members of the importin-β family can bind and transport cargo by themselves, or can form heterodimers with importin-α. As part of a heterodimer, importin-β mediates interactions with the pore complex, while importin-α acts as an adaptor protein to bind the nuclear localization signal (NLS) on the cargo. The NLS-Importin α-Importin β trimer dissociates after binding to Ran GTP inside the nucleus, with the two importin proteins being recycled to the cytoplasm for further use.
Discovery
Importin can exist as either a heterodimer of importin-α/β or as a monomer of Importin-β. Importin-α was first isolated in 1994 by a group including Enno Hartmann, based at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. The process of nuclear protein import had already been characterised in previous reviews, but the key proteins involved had not been elucidated up until that point. A 60 kDa cytosolic protein, essential for protein import into the nucleus, and with a 44% sequence identity to SRP1p, was purified from Xenopus eggs.
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