An iris-like pore for protein import into peroxisomes
How to prepare an accurate paper press kit? Illustrated guide
D. He, Y. Gao, T. Rapoport · DOI: 10.64898/2026.10.23.761396 · Summary page
Why cover this story this week?
An adjustable doorway for folded proteins
Most readers will know membranes as barriers; cells also need them to be carefully managed doorways. Peroxisomes, compartments containing metabolic enzymes, face an unusual transport problem: they import proteins that are already folded, sometimes in assemblies. A structural preprint describes how their import channel could accommodate such varied cargo. PEX13 proteins form a ring of tilted helices, with water-facing surfaces lining a selective interior and fat-facing surfaces contacting the membrane.
The proposed mechanism resembles an iris: neighboring helix pairs slide, changing their tilt and widening the opening. The structures support expansion sufficient for a cargo-carrying receptor, while a still wider configuration needed for the largest cargo is supported by AlphaFold modeling and disulfide crosslinking. This offers an alternative to protein transport systems that require cargo to unfold, although the widest proposed opening has less direct structural support.
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