Constitutive expression of a COOH-terminal leucine mutant of lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 causes its exclusive localization in low density intracellular vesicles.

Lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 (LAMP-1) is a type I transmembrane protein with a short cytoplasmic tail that possesses a lysosome-targeting signal of GYQTI(382)-COOH. Wild-type (WT)-LAMP-1 was exclusively localized in high density lysosomes, and efficiency of LAMP-1's transport to lysosomes depends on its COOH-terminal amino acid residue. Among many different COOH-terminal amino acid substitution mutants of LAMP-1, a leucine-substituted mutant (I382L) displays the most efficient targeting to late endosomes and lysosomes [Akasaki et al.