title: Divest yourself of a preconceived idea: transcription factor ATF6 is not a soluble protein!
abstract: The unfolded protein response (UPR), an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional induction program that is coupled with intracellular signaling from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the nucleus, is activated to cope with ER stress and to maintain the homeostasis of the ER. In 1996, we isolated a basic leucine zipper protein, which had been previously named activating transcription factor (ATF)6, as a candidate transcription factor responsible for the mammalian UPR. Subsequent analysis, however, was confounding. The problem was eventually tracked down to an unusual property of ATF6: rather than being a soluble nuclear protein, as expected for an active transcription factor, ATF6 was instead synthesized as a transmembrane protein embedded in the ER, which was activated by ER stress-induced proteolysis. ATF6 was thus unique: an ER stress sensor/transducer that is involved in all steps of the UPR, from the sensing step in the ER to the transcriptional activation step in the nucleus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. kazu.mori@bio.mbox.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kazutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D051702:Activating Transcription Factor 6 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D021581:Active Transport, Cell Nucleus; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012995:Solubility; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D056811:Unfolded Protein Response
chemical_list: C497111:ATF6 protein, human; D051702:Activating Transcription Factor 6; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins