The N-end rule pathway is a set of proteolytic systems whose unifying feature is the ability to recognize and polyubiquitylate proteins containing degradation signals called N-degrons, 6 thereby causing degradation of these proteins by the proteasome (Fig. 1, A and B) (1-8). The main determinant of an N-degron is either an unmodified or chemically modified destabilizing N-terminal residue of a protein. The identity of the next residue, at position 2, is often important as well. A second determinant of an N-degron is a protein's internal Lys residue. It functions as the site of a protein's polyubiquitylation and tends to be located in a conformationally disordered region (4, 9, 10). Recognition components of the N-end rule pathway are called N-recognins. In eukaryotes, N-recognins are E3 ubiquitin (Ub) ligases that can target N-degrons (Fig. 1, A and B). Bacteria also contain the N-end rule pathway, but Ub-independent versions of it (11-16).Regulated degradation of proteins and their natural fragments by the N-end rule pathway has been shown to mediate a strikingly broad range of biological functions, including the sensing of heme, nitric oxide (NO), oxygen, and short peptides; the control, through subunit-selective degradation, of the input stoichiometries of subunits in oligomeric protein complexes; the elimination of misfolded or otherwise abnormal proteins; the degradation of specific proteins after their retrotranslocation to the cytosol from mitochondria or other membrane-enclosed compartments; the regulation of apoptosis and repression of neurodegeneration; the regulation of DNA repair, transcription, replication, and chromosome cohesion/segregation; the regulation of G proteins, autophagy, peptide import, meiosis, immunity, fat metabolism, cell migration, actin filaments, cardiovascular development, spermatogenesis, and neurogenesis; the functioning of adult organs, including the brain, muscle, testis, and pancreas; and the regulation of leaf and shoot development, leaf senescence, and many other processes in plants (Fig. 1, A and B) (see Refs. 4 -7 and references therein).In eukaryotes, the N-end rule pathway consists of two branches. One branch, called the Ac/N-end rule pathway, targets proteins for degradation through their N ␣ -terminally acetylated (Nt-acetylated) residues (Fig. 1B) (2, 3, 17-19). Degradation signals and E3 Ub ligases of the Ac/N-end rule pathway are called Ac/N-degrons and Ac/N-recognins, respectively. Nt-acetylation of cellular proteins is apparently irreversible, * This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 31171374 and 31471277 and Major Basic Research Program Grant 2012CB944404 (to W. L.) and by National Institutes of Health Grants R01-DK039520 and R01-GM031530 (to A. V.). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. 1 These authors contribut...