Video imaging by high-speed atomic force microscopy captures a nuclear pore complex at work.

Zooming into a nuclear pore complex using a high-speed atomic force microscope reveals the selectivity barrier that filters the traffic of molecules passing between the cytoplasm and nucleus in eukaryotic cells. This is comprised of intrinsically disordered proteins known as FG Nucleoporins that resemble highly dynamic molecular “tentacles”.
0.02 - 0.12: Captured at 550 ms per frame; Playback = realtime
0.13 - 0.22: Captured at 1360 ms per frame; Playback = ~4x
0.23 - 0.35: Captured at 180 ms per frame; Playback = realtime
Original Article:
Yusuke Sakiyama, Adam Mazur, Larisa E. Kapinos and Roderick Y.H. Lim. Spatiotemporal dynamics of the nuclear pore complex transport barrier resolved by high-speed atomic force microscopy. Nature Nanotechnology (2016). doi: 10.1038/nnano.2016.62