核孔是镶嵌在真核细胞细胞核核膜中的一种复合物，是细胞核与细胞质间物质交流的信道。细胞核内合成的RNA、大多蛋白质与核糖体等进入细胞质的需通过核孔进入细胞质，而细胞质中的大分子物质也需经过核孔进入细胞核。脊椎动物细胞的核膜上平均拥有约2000个核孔，但核孔的数量也会根据细胞转录活动的旺盛程度的改变而发生变化。

组成核孔的蛋白质是核孔素。约有一半的核孔素典型地包含α螺旋和β螺旋团，或包含结构域，因为另外一半的一级结构中包含许多重复的缩氨酸、苯丙氨酸及甘氨酸，所以这一半表现出蛋白质自然发展所形成的典型结构特征，亦即缺少整齐次组织的高度弯曲蛋白质，这些发生病变的蛋白质称作细粒核孔素。

Nuclear pores are large protein complexes that cross the nuclear envelope, which is the double membrane surrounding the eukaryotic cell nucleus. There are about an average of 2000 nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), in the nuclear envelope of a vertebrate cell, but it varies depending on cell type and the stage in the life cycle. The proteins that make up the nuclear pore complex are known as nucleoporins. About half of the nucleoporins typically contain solenoid protein domains—either an alpha solenoid or a beta-propeller fold, or in some cases both as separate structural domains. Each NPC contains at least 456 individual protein molecules and is composed of 30 distinct proteins (nucleoporins). The other half show structural characteristics typical of "natively unfolded" or intrinsically disordered proteins, i.e. they are highly flexible proteins that lack ordered secondary structure. These disordered proteins are the FG nucleoporins, so called because their amino-acid sequence contains many phenylalanine—glycine repeats.