A nonconventional role of molecular chaperones: involvement in the cytoarchitecture.

A hallmark of chaperone action is assistance in protein folding. Indeed, folding of nascent prokaryotic proteins proceeds mostly as a chaperone-assisted, posttranslational event. On the contrary, in nonstressed eukaryotic cells folding-related tasks of eukaryotic chaperones are restricted to a subset of proteins, and "jobless" chaperones may form an extension of the cytoarchitecture, facilitating intracellular traffic of proteins and other macromolecules.