The role of topogenic sequences in the movement of proteins through membranes

Abstract

Recent advances have led to considerable convergence in ideas of the way topogenic sequences act to translocate proteins across various intracellular membranes (Table 2). Whereas co-translational translocation and processing were previously considered the norm at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, several instances of post-translational translocation into endoplasmic reticulum microsomes in vitro have now been described. However, it must be noted that post-translational translocation in vitro is much less efficient than when endoplasmic reticulum membranes are present during translation, and it is possible that in the intact cell translocation occurs during translation. Movement of proteins into chloroplasts and mitochondria occurs after translation. When translocation is post-translational, proteins may perhaps traverse the membrane as folded domains, and the conformational effects of topogenic sequences on these domains may be as envisaged in Wickner's ‘membrane-trigger hypothesis’. Both signal and transit sequences possess amphipathic structures which are capable of interacting with phospholipid bilayers, and these interactions may disturb the bilayer sufficiently to allow entry of the following domains of protein. There is increasing evidence that GTP is required to bind ribosomes and their associated nascent chains to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Precisely how the cell's energy is applied to achieve translocation is not clear, but one possibility at the endoplasmic reticulum is that a GTP-hydrolysing transducing mechanism may exist to couple signal sequence receptor binding to movement of the nascent chain across the membrane. Electrochemical gradients are required for protein movement to the mitochondrial inner membrane and across the bacterial inner membrane. Cytoplasmic factors such as SRP, the secA gene product or a 40 kDa protein (for mitochondrial precursors) may act by binding to topogenic sequences and preventing precursor proteins as they are translated from folding into forms which cannot be translocated. Specificity in the cell may be achieved both by targetting interactions between these cytoplasmic factors and their receptors located in target membranes, and also by specific binding of the topogenic sequences to specific proteins integrated into the target membranes. Possible candidates for the latter are the protein of microsomal membranes that reacts with a photoreactive signal peptide to give a 45 kDa complex (Fig. 1), the secY gene product of the bacterial inner membrane, and receptors on the outer membranes of chloroplasts and mitochondria. Whether these aid translocation as well as recognition is not clear.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)