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. 2008 May 1;586(Pt 12):2873–2888. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2008.153379

Figure 7. Proposed role for AL in regulating ER protein activity.

Figure 7

Hypothesized role for AL assembly/disassembly in regulating the activity of ER resident proteins. ER proteins resident within AL (right) display attenuated function compared to their properties when resident within the bulk ER (left). Therefore regulated assembly/disassembly of AL, effected via a kinase (probably MPF)/phosphatase cycle, is associated with a loss (red)/gain (green) of function transition in protein activity. Regulated AL disassembly provides a mechanism for physiological ‘gain-of-function’ transitions, and pathologically AL assembly is probably an adaptation to sequester proteins when exogenous protein overload (e.g. viral infection) may impair ER functionality.