Are transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) and tapasin class I MHC chaperones?

Class I MHC heavy chains associate with many proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, including TAP, calnexin, calreticulin, and the newly defined tapasin molecule. Recent studies have begun to resolve the nature of how these proteins interact with class I as well as the functional significance of each of these interactions. We propose here that TAP and tapasin are leading candidates to be highly specific chaperones for the class I molecule.