title: Pathfinders and trailblazers: a prokaryotic targeting system for transport of folded proteins.
abstract: The twin-arginine (Tat) protein translocase is a highly unusual protein transport machine that is dedicated to the movement of folded proteins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane. Proteins are targeted to the Tat pathway by means of N-terminal signal peptides harbouring a distinctive twin-arginine motif. In this minireview, we describe our current knowledge of the Tat system, paying particular attention to the function of the TatA protein and to the often overlooked step of signal peptide cleavage.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. f.sargent@uae.ac.uk
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sargent
authors.forename: Ben C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Berks
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Palmer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D017510:Protein Folding; D021381:Protein Transport
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; C408585:twin-arginine translocase complex, E coli