P. Whitley et al., A 12-RESIDUE-LONG POLYLEUCINE TAIL IS SUFFICIENT TO ANCHOR SYNAPTOBREVIN TO THE ENDOPLASMIC-RETICULUM MEMBRANE, The Journal of biological chemistry, 271(13), 1996, pp. 7583-7586
Synaptobrevin is a tail-anchored protein with a hydrophobic C-terminal
transmembrane segment that inserts into the endoplasmic reticulum mem
brane independently of the SRP/Sec61p pathway. Here, we show that idea
lized hydrophobic segments composed of 11-17 leucines and 1 valine fun
ction as insertion signals in vitro, whereas shorter segments do not.
These results suggest that there are no specific requirements beyond o
verall hydrophobicity for C-terminal endoplasmic reticulum insertion s
ignals.