MOVIE 6.1 chaperone function, like calnexin. A second component of the complex is the TAP-associated protein tapasin, encoded by a gene within the MHC. Tapasin forms a bridge between MHC class I molecules and TAP, allowing the partly folded α:β2-microglobulin heterodimer to await the transport of a suitable peptide from the cytosol. A third component of this complex is the chaperone ERp57, a thiol oxidoreductase that may have a role in breaking and re-forming the disulfide bond in the MHC class I α2 domain during peptide loading (Fig. 6.9). ERp57 forms a stable disulfide-linked heterodimer with tapasin. Tapasin seems to be a component of the PLC that is specific to antigen processing, while calnexin, ERp57, and calreticulin bind various other glycoproteins assembling in the endoplasmic reticulum and seem to be part of the cell’s general quality control machinery. TAP itself is the final component of the PLC, and it delivers peptides to the partially folded MHC class I molecule.
The PLC maintains the MHC class I molecule in a state that is receptive to peptide binding and mediates the exchange of low-affinity peptides bound to the MHC molecule for peptides of higher affinity, a process called peptide editing. The ERp57:tapasin heterodimer functions in editing peptides binding to MHC class I. Cells lacking calreticulin or tapasin show defects in the assembly of MHC class I molecules, and those molecules that reach the cell surface are bound to suboptimal, low-affinity peptides. The binding of a peptide to the partly folded MHC class I molecule releases it from the PLC, and the peptide:MHC complex leaves the endoplasmic reticulum and is transported to the cell surface. Most of the peptides transported by TAP will not bind to the MHC molecules and are rapidly cleared out of the endoplasmic reticulum; these appear to be transported back into the cytosol by Sec61, an ATP-dependent transport complex distinct from TAP.
As mentioned above, the MHC class I molecule must bind a peptide in order to be released from the PLC. In cells lacking functional TAP genes, the MHC class I molecules fail to exit the endoplasmic reticulum, and so must be degraded instead. Since the ubiquitin–proteasome system is located in the cytosol, these terminally misfolded MHC molecules must somehow be transported back into the cytoplasm for degradation. This is achieved by a system of quality control pathways called endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein degradation (ERAD). ERAD comprises several general cellular pathways that involve the recognition and delivery of misfolded proteins to a retrotranslocation complex that unfolds and translocates the proteins across the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum and into the cytosol. The proteins are ubiquitinated during this process and so are targeted to the ubiquitin– proteasome system (UPS) for eventual degradation. We shall not delve deeply into the details of ERAD here, since these pathways are not unique to MHC