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Insertion of proteins into membranes is an essential cellular process. The extensive biophysical and topological diversity of membrane proteins necessitates multiple insertion pathways that remain incompletely defined. Here we found that known membrane insertion pathways fail to effectively engage tail-anchored membrane proteins with moderately hydrophobic transmembrane domains. These proteins are instead shielded in the cytosol by calmodulin. Dynamic release from calmodulin allowed sampling of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where the conserved ER membrane protein complex (EMC) was shown to be essential for efficient insertion in vitro and in cells. Purified EMC in synthetic liposomes catalyzed the insertion of its substrates in a reconstituted system. Thus, EMC is a transmembrane domain insertase, a function that may explain its widely pleiotropic membrane-associated phenotypes across organisms.

Original publication

DOI

10.1126/science.aao3099

Type

Journal article

Journal

Science

Publication Date

26/01/2018

Volume

359

Pages

470 - 473

Keywords

Calmodulin, Cytosol, Endoplasmic Reticulum, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Intracellular Membranes, Membrane Proteins, Protein Domains, Protein Transport