Nuclear pore complexes and regulation of gene expression

•Nuclear pore complexes and nucleoporins have many transport-independent functions.•Nuclear pore complexes play key roles in gene expression regulation.•In yeast, the activity of many inducible genes is regulated at nuclear pore complexes.•In metazoans, many nucleoporins regulate gene expression inside the nucleus and away from nuclear pore complexes.

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), are large multiprotein channels that penetrate the nuclear envelope connecting the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Accumulating evidence shows that besides their main role in regulating the exchange of molecules between these two compartments, NPCs and their components also play important transport-independent roles, including gene expression regulation, chromatin organization, DNA repair, RNA processing and quality control, and cell cycle control. Here, we will describe the recent findings about the role of these structures in the regulation of gene expression.