The emerging roles of GCN5L1 in mitochondrial and vacuolar organelle biology.

General control of amino acid synthesis 5 like 1 (GCN5L1) was named due to its loose sequence alignment to GCN5, a catalytic subunit of numerous histone N-acetyltransferase complexes. Further studies show that GCN5L1 has mitochondrial and cytosolic isoforms, although functional-domain sequence alignment and experimental studies show that GCN5L1 itself does not possess intrinsic acetyltransferase activity. Nevertheless, GCN5L1 does support protein acetylation in the mitochondria and cytosol and functions as a subunit of numerous intracellular multiprotein complexes that control intracellular vacuolar organelle positioning and function. The majority of GCN5L1 studies have focused on distinct intracellular functions and in this review, we summarize these findings as well as postulate what may be common features of the diverse phenotypes linked to GCN5L1.