A structural perspective on tail-anchored protein biogenesis by the GET pathway
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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

The Tail Suspension Test
Published on: January 28, 2012
Agnieszka Mateja1, Robert J Keenan1
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, 929 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Abstract:
Many tail-anchored (TA) membrane proteins are targeted to and inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by the `guided entry of tail-anchored proteins' (GET) pathway. This post-translational pathway uses transmembrane-domain selective cytosolic chaperones for targeting, and a dedicated membrane protein complex for insertion. The past decade has seen rapid progress towards defining the molecular basis of TA protein biogenesis by the GET pathway. Here we review the mechanisms underlying each step of the pathway, emphasizing recent structural work and highlighting key questions that await future studies.
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