New research found quality control in The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) shown here as (2) and (3). Image courtesy of Magnus Manske, Wikipedia.
Joel Kontinen
In real life, we would tend to associate quality control with something that has been designed for a purpose. This would also apply to the minuscule scale of the cell, which after all is full of amazing, almost miraculously tiny motors.
A new paper by researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) highlights the quality control that exists in the cell.
According to a CRG news release:
“In a paper published today in Science, CRG researchers describe a new protein quality control system in the inner nuclear membrane.
The new system has two main functions, to eliminate misfolded proteins and to protect the nucleus from accumulating mislocalised (or ectopic) proteins. This may be especially relevant in non-dividing cells such as neurones.”
The brief news release makes frequent use of the term quality control. What is missing is any explicit or implicit reference to random Darwinian mechanisms.
Source
A new quality control pathway in the cell. Centre for Genomic Regulation. 18 September 2014.