Unconventional protein secretion (UcPS) exports diverse signal peptide-lacking cargoes, yet its cargo selectivity remains poorly understood. Here, we identify TMED proteins as key regulators of vesicle-dependent UcPS, mediating selective cargo release via translocation into secretory carriers. TMED proteins act as translocators, facilitating cargo passage across lipid bilayers with assistance from HSP90 chaperones and partial cargo unfolding. Selectivity arises during translocation, where TMED cytoplasmic tails bind specific cargoes. The ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) is essential for TMED-mediated translocation and release. TMED homo-oligomerization enhances translocation, while hetero-tetramerization inhibits it. ERGIC localization promotes homo-oligomerization, which is further stabilized by cargo binding, forming a feed-forward mechanism to enhance translocation. These findings establish TMED proteins as central regulators of cargo diversity in UcPS, with their oligomerization and subcellular localization modulating translocation efficiency.
Zheng et al. (2026) studied this question.