Structural insight into the delivery of tail-anchor membrane proteins to the ER.

An intriguing class of the biosynthesis of integral membrane proteins, the aptly named tail-anchors (TA), constitute an important and diverse proteins that are unable to be targeted via the co-translational signal recognition particle pathway. This has been recognized for nearly twenty years, but only recently, factors that target these proteins to the ER have been identified. Clemons’ group conducted structural and mechanistic studies in yeast to characterize the Guided Entry of Tail-anchor proteins (GET) pathway. Prof. Clemons will present unique perspective and insights revealed from new structures of complexes between these proteins. Additionally, he will elaborate on the pathway in higher eukaryotes and the role these proteins play triaging membrane proteins in the cytoplasm.

Department:  Structural Biology

Contact: E. Podoly | NA | pode@stanford.edu

Presenter(s):

• Dr. William (Bil) Clemons Assistant Professor, Dept of Biochemistry, Caltech