Article on ubiquitylation and endocytosis of human LAT1 transporter published in Scientific Reports

A novel article published in Scientific Reports by C. Barthelemy and B. André describes conditions triggering rapid endocytosis and degradation of the human LAT1/SLC7A5 amino acid transporter in human HeLa cells. The study further shows that the signal eliciting this downregulation is ubiquitin. The modification occurs on a group of three lysines in the cytosolic N-terminal tail of the transporter and is mediated by the Nedd4-2 ubiquitin ligase.  Future work will determine the importance of this mechanism in normal and tumour cells, where LAT1/SLC7A5 plays an important role, in particular through control of the TOR kinase complex 1 (mTORC1).