Abstract
Peroxisomes import folded, even oligomeric, proteins, which distinguishes the peroxisomal translocation machinery from the well-characterized translocons of other organelles. How proteins are transported across the peroxisomal membrane is unclear. Here, we propose a mechanistic model that conceptually divides the import process into three consecutive steps: the formation of a translocation pore by the import receptor, the ubiquitylation of the import receptors, and pore disassembly/receptor recycling.
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Acknowledgements
We thank W.-H. Kunau and H. Rottensteiner for critically reading this manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge M. Veenhuis for kindly sharing electron micrographs. Work in our laboratories is supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the European Union and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. We apologize to the many researchers whose work we could not cite due to space limitations.
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Erdmann, R., Schliebs, W. Peroxisomal matrix protein import: the transient pore model. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 6, 738–742 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1710
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1710
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