title: Two birds with one stone: a novel motif for ACh receptor assembly quality control.
abstract: Assembly of ACh receptors is under tight quality control. Only functional ACh receptors are expressed on the cell surface; unassembled subunits are retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In a recent elegant study, Wang and colleagues have identified a novel motif in the M1 domain of the ACh-receptor subunit that is responsible for ER retention and degradation of unassembled subunits. This signal appears to play an important role in regulating surface trafficking of functional ACh receptors.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. lmei@nrc.uab.edu
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: Wen C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000502:physiology*; D021381:Protein Transport / Q000502:physiology; D011786:Quality Control; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D021122:Protein Subunits; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic