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Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancements in Cell and Tissue Engineering for Tendon Repair
Published on: March 1, 2024
Distinct isoform-specific complexes of TANGO1 cooperatively facilitate collagen secretion from the endoplasmic
Miharu Maeda1, Kota Saito2, Toshiaki Katada1
1Department of Physiological Chemistry, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Abstract:
Collagens synthesized within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are too large to fit in conventional COPII-coated transport vesicles; thus their export from the ER requires specialized factors. TANGO1 (L) is an integral membrane protein that binds to collagen and the coatomer of vesicles and is necessary for collagen secretion from the ER. Here we characterized the short isoform of TANGO1 (TANGO1S), lacking the collagen-binding domain, and found that it was independently required for collagen export from the ER. Moreover, we found that each of the TANGO1 isoforms forms a stable protein complex with factors involved in collagen secretion: TANGO1L/cTAGE5/Sec12 (900 kDa) and TANGO1S/cTAGE5/Sec12 (700 kDa). Of interest, TANGO1S and TANGO1L seemed to be interchangeable in exporting collagen from the ER. Our results suggest that mammalian ER exit sites possess two different-sized membrane-bound macromolecular complexes that specifically function in large-cargo export from the ER.
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