Skip to main content

Some NLM-NCBI services and products are experiencing heavy traffic, which may affect performance and availability. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For assistance, please contact our Help Desk at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2001 Feb 28;356(1406):147–150. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2000.0759

Quality control in the secretory assembly line.

A Helenius 1
PMCID: PMC1088419  PMID: 11260794

Abstract

As a rule, only proteins that have reached a native, folded and assembled structure are transported to their target organelles and compartments within the cell. In the secretory pathway of eukaryotic cells, this type of sorting is particularly important. A variety of molecular mechanisms are involved that distinguish between folded and unfolded proteins, modulate their intracellular transport, and induce degradation if they fail to fold. This phenomenon, called quality control, occurs at several levels and involves different types of folding sensors. The quality control system provides a stringent and versatile molecular sorting system that guaranties fidelity of protein expression in the secretory pathway.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (95.7 KB).


Articles from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES