The nuclear pore complex connects energy sensing to transcriptional plasticity in longevity.

As the only gateway governing nucleocytoplasmic transport, the nuclear pore complex (NPC) maintains fundamental cellular processes and deteriorates with age. However, the study of age-related roles of single NPC components remains challenging owing to the complexity of NPC composition. Here we demonstrate that the master energy sensor, AMPK, post-translationally regulates the abundance of the nucleoporin NPP-16/NUP50 in response to nutrient availability and energetic stress. In turn, NPP-16/NUP50 promotes transcriptomic activation of lipid catabolism to extend the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans independently of its role in nuclear transport. Rather, the intrinsically disordered region (IDR) of NPP-16/NUP50, through direct interaction with the transcriptional machinery, transactivates the promoters of catabolic genes. Remarkably, elevated NPP-16/NUP50 levels are sufficient to promote longevity and metabolic stress defenses. AMPK-NUP50 signaling is conserved to human, indicating that bridging energy sensing to metabolic adaptation is an ancient role of this signaling axis.