Targeting of cytosolic proteins to lysosomes for degradation.

We review evidence for a pathway by which specific cytosolic proteins are targeted to lysosomes for degradation in cultured cells in response to serum withdrawal. This pathway is also activated by starvation in several rat tissues. The enhanced degradation is specific for a class of intracellular proteins containing peptide sequences related to residues 7 to 11 of ribonuclease A (RNase A). The amino acid sequence of this pentapeptide is lysine-phenylalanine-glutamate-arginine-glutamine, or, in single letter amino acid abbreviations, KFERQ. A heat shock protein of 73 kDa binds to such peptide regions in proteins and somehow mediates their transfer to lysosomes for degradation. The recent reconstitution of this lysosomal pathway of proteolysis in vitro should permit detailed mechanistic analysis of how proteins are directed to and translocated across lysosomal membranes.