Peroxisomal protein import and ERAD: variations on a common theme

Despite their distinct biological functions, there is a surprising similarity between the composition of the machinery that imports proteins into peroxisomes and the machinery that degrades endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated proteins. The basis of this similarity lies in the fact that both machineries make use of the same basic mechanistic principle: the tagging of a substrate by monoubiquitylation or polyubiquitylation and its subsequent recognition and ATP-dependent removal from a membrane by ATPases of the ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities (AAA) family of proteins. We propose that the ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD)-like removal of the peroxisomal import receptor is mechanically coupled to protein translocation into the organelle, giving rise to a new concept of export-driven import.