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Proteins expressed in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are subjected to a tight quality control. Persistent association with ER-resident molecular chaperones prevents exit of misfolded or incompletely assembled polypeptides from the ER and forward transport along the secretory line. ER-associated degradation (ERAD) is in place to avoid ER constipation. Folding-incompetent products have to be identified to interrupt futile folding attempts and then targeted for unfolding and dislocation into the cytosol for proteasome-mediated destruction. These processes are better understood for N-glycosylated proteins that represent the majority of polypeptides expressed in the ER. EDEM, a mannosidase-like chaperone, regulates the extraction of misfolded glycoproteins from the calnexin cycle. Here we identify and characterize EDEM2, a novel, stress-regulated mannosidase-like protein that operates in the ER lumen. We show that transcriptional up-regulation of EDEM2 depends on the ER stress-activated transcription factor Xbp1, that EDEM2 up-regulation selectively accelerates ERAD of terminally misfolded glycoproteins by facilitating their extraction from the calnexin cycle, and that the previously characterized homolog EDEM is also a soluble protein of the ER lumen in HEK293 cells.

Proteins synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen are exposed to several dedicated chaperones and folding factors that ensure efficient maturation. Nevertheless, protein folding remains error-prone and mutations in the polypeptide sequence may significantly reduce folding-efficiency. Folding-incompetent proteins carrying N-glycans are extracted from futile folding cycles in the calnexin chaperone system upon intervention of EDEM1, EDEM2 and EDEM3, three ER-stressinduced members of the glycosyl hydrolase 47 family. This review describes current knowledge about mechanisms regulating folding and disposal of glycoproteins.

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