Pex18p is constitutively degraded during peroxisome biogenesis

Pex18p and Pex21p are structurally related yeast peroxins (proteins required for peroxisome biogenesis) that are partially redundant in function. One or the other is essential for the import into peroxisomes of proteins with type 2 peroxisomal targeting sequences (PTS2). These sequences bind to the soluble PTS2 receptor, Pex7p, which in turn binds to Pex18p (or Pex21p or possibly both). Here we show that Pex18p is constitutively degraded with a half-time of less than 10 min in wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This degradation probably occurs in proteasomes, because it requires the related ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes Ubc4p and Ubc5p and occurs normally in a mutant lacking the Pep4p vacuolar protease. The turnover of Pex18p stops, and Pex18p accumulates to a much higher than normal abundance in pex mutants in which the import of all peroxisomal matrix proteins is blocked. This includes mutants that lack peroxins involved in receptor docking at the membrane (Deltapex13 or Deltapex14), a mutant that lacks the peroxisomal member of the E2 family of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (Deltapex4), and others (Deltapex1). This stabilization in a variety of pex mutants indicates that Pex18p turnover is associated with its normal function. A Pex18p-Pex7p complex is detected by immunoprecipitation in wild type cells, and its abundance increases considerably in the Deltapex14 peroxisome biogenesis mutant. Cells that lack Pex7p fail to stabilize and accumulate Pex18p, indicating an important role for complex formation in the stabilization. Mono- and diubiquitinated forms of Pex18p are detected in wild-type cells, and there is no Pex18p turnover in a yeast doa4 mutant in which ubiquitin homeostasis is defective. These data represent, to the best of our knowledge, the first instance of an organelle biogenesis factor that is degraded constitutively and rapidly.