The plant cytotoxin ricin enters target mammalian cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis and undergoes retrograde transport to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here, its catalytic A chain (RTA) is reductively separated from the cell-binding B chain, and free RTA enters the cytosol where it inactivates ribosomes. Cytosolic entry requires unfolding of RTA and dislocation across the ER membrane such that it arrives in the cytosol in a vulnerable, nonnative conformation. Clearly, for such a dislocated toxin to become active, it must avoid degradation and fold to a catalytic conformation. Here, we show that, in vitro, Hsc70 prevents aggregation of heat-treated RTA, and that RTA catalytic activity is recovered after chaperone treatment. A combination of pharmacological inhibition and cochaperone expression reveals that, in vivo, cytosolic RTA is scrutinized sequentially by the Hsc70 and Hsp90 cytosolic chaperone machineries, and that its eventual fate is determined by the balance of activities of cochaperones that regulate Hsc70 and Hsp90 functions. Cytotoxic activity follows Hsc70-mediated escape of RTA from an otherwise destructive pathway facilitated by Hsp90. We demonstrate a role for cytosolic chaperones, proteins typically associated with folding nascent proteins, assembling multimolecular protein complexes and degrading cytosolic and stalled, cotranslocational clients, in a toxin triage, in which both toxin folding and degradation are initiated from chaperone-bound states.Hsc70 ͉ Hsp90 ͉ ricin E ndoplasmic-reticulum (ER) associated protein degradation (ERAD) comprises coordinated disposal systems that recognize and remove misfolded and unassembled proteins in the ER, dislocating them across the ER membrane to the cytosol for proteasomal destruction. Degradation is normally facilitated by polyubiquitylation, usually on internal lysyl residues of the target protein. Both membrane-bound and soluble ER proteins can be disposed of by ERAD (1, 2).The plant cytotoxin ricin traffics to the ER lumen of mammalian cells where it is reduced to its RTA and RTB subunits before RTA dislocation (3). RTA does not penetrate the ER membrane directly; instead it exploits pre-existing proteinconducting channels as a nonnative species, mimicking ER proteins dispatched via ERAD (4, 5). Thus, it enters the cytosol in a form susceptible to proteolysis or aggregation. A proportion must evade these fates to gain a catalytic conformation that depurinates target ribosomes, stopping protein synthesis. The paucity of lysine residues in RTA may facilitate uncoupling from ERAD by reducing the potential for polyubiquitylation, thereby hampering proteasomal degradation (6). This, in turn, may provide opportunities for spontaneous or chaperone-assisted folding not normally sanctioned for ERAD substrates.We show an interaction of RTA with the cytosolic heat shock (cognate) protein Hsc70. From the chaperone-bound state, nonnative cytosolic RTA can achieve a catalytic conformation or can be inactivated. Its ultimate fate depends on the activities of ...