Oligomerization with wt αA- and αB-crystallins reduces proteasome-mediated degradation of C-terminally truncated αA-crystallin.

Purpose. We previously demonstrated that the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) is a general protein quality control system that selectively degrades damaged or abnormal lens proteins, including C-terminally truncated αA-crystallin. The objective of this work was to determine the effects of wt αA- and αB-crystallins on the degradation of C-terminally truncated αA-crystallin (αA1–162) and vice versa.