Wattenberg B, Lithgow T
Hanson Centre for Cancer Research, Box 14 Rundle Mall Post Office, Adelaide 5000, Australia.
Traffic. 2001 Jan;2(1):66-71. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0854.2001.20108.x.
A class of integral membrane proteins, referred to as 'tail-anchored proteins', are inserted into phospholipid bilayers via a single segment of hydrophobic amino acids at the C-terminus, thereby displaying a large functional domain in the cytosol. This membrane attachment strategy allows eukaryotic cells to position a wide range of cytoplasmic activities close to the surface of an intracellular membrane. Tail-anchored proteins often, but not always, demonstrate a selective distribution to specific intracellular organelles. This membrane-specific distribution is required for the large number of targeting proteins that are tail-anchored, but may or may not be critical for the numerous tail-anchored pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family. Recent work has begun to address the mechanism for targeting tail-anchored proteins to their resident membranes, but questions remain. What targeting signals determine each protein's intracellular location? Are there receptors for these signals and, if so, how do they function? What steps are required to integrate tail-anchored proteins into the phospholipid bilayers? In this Traffic interchange, we summarise what is known about tail-anchored proteins, and outline the areas that are currently under study.
一类整合膜蛋白，被称为“尾锚定蛋白”，通过C端的一段疏水性氨基酸插入磷脂双层膜，从而在细胞质中展现出一个大的功能结构域。这种膜附着策略使真核细胞能够将多种细胞质活动定位在靠近细胞内膜表面的位置。尾锚定蛋白通常但并非总是表现出对特定细胞内细胞器的选择性分布。这种膜特异性分布对于大量尾锚定的靶向蛋白是必需的，但对于Bcl-2家族众多的尾锚定促凋亡和抗凋亡蛋白可能至关重要，也可能并非关键因素。最近的研究已开始探讨将尾锚定蛋白靶向其驻留膜的机制，但仍存在一些问题。哪些靶向信号决定了每种蛋白在细胞内的定位？是否存在这些信号的受体，如果有，它们是如何发挥作用的？将尾锚定蛋白整合到磷脂双层膜中需要哪些步骤？在本《交通交汇》中，我们总结了关于尾锚定蛋白的已知信息，并概述了当前正在研究的领域。
