Figure 4.

Elastic behavior of the NE. If the intermediate filament lamin polymer supporting the NE were very stiff like other filament systems in the cytoplasm, it would be likely to rupture under the stresses exerted on it by the genome (e.g., growth during replication or rapid movements of regions within chromosome territories (A–C) or the cytoskeleton (D–F). When all components are bound and working together with an elastic nucleoskeleton the whole system can move slightly together while providing a counterforce to that exerted (A and D). In contrast, if the nucleoskeleton functioned like a brick and mortar scaffolding, then components of the system might pull apart from one another or the lamin polymer might physically rupture as do microtubules when subjected to strong bending forces (B, C, E and F). In this case NETs that have strong interactions with chromatin and/or the lamin polymer might even be pulled out of the membrane.