YML018C protein localizes to the vacuolar membrane independently of Atg27p

Large-scale studies have localized the uncharacterized YML018C protein to the vacuolar membrane and have identified the autophagy-related protein Atg27p as one of its 10 physical interactors (Huh et al., 2003; Tarasov et al., 2008). These two findings suggested a potential role for the YML018C protein in the process of autophagy. In silico methods predict that the YML018C protein has 8 transmembrane domains, with both N- and C-terminal regions facing the cytoplasm (Krogh et al., 2000). Structure prediction algorithms identify the YML018C protein as a candidate GDP-mannose (or nucleotide sugar) transporter (Kelley et al., 2015).