Hot nuclei at the Cold Spring

Biologists are used to the idea that structure and function are interconnected; they can relate the gross anatomy of a limb to locomotion, the organization of a mitochondrion to energy production, and the geometry of an enzyme to a catalytic activity. Therefore, they would expect textbooks and conferences on the nucleus to relate the vital functions like replication and transcription to the underlying structure. However, those functions are usually studied after most nuclear structure has been destroyed, and then it is understandable that the nuclear interior is depicted as a featureless tangle of chromatin fibers. Of course, a functional nucleus is not like that! A recent meeting on the ‘Dynamic organization of nuclear function’ held at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on 13–17 September, 2000 (organized by Thomas Cremer, Robert Goldman, Pamela Silver and David Spector) marked a shift from the traditional way of discussing nuclear function in terms of soluble proteins; most presentations placed function in an architectural context. Unfortunately, this review can only give a flavor of some of these presentations, due to space limitations.