The entry station for all proteins of the secretory path- way (this includes secretory proteins, plasma membrane proteins and proteins destined for various compartments of the endomembrane system) is the endoplasmic reticulum. Besides its role in detoxification of substrates by UDP- glucuronyl transferases, the preparation of antigens to be presented on the cell surface by major histocompatibility complex and its capacity to synthesize lipids, the ER is responsible for the synthesis and translocation of proteins, and the release of properly processed, folded and assem- bled proteins to allow transport to their destinations. These functions of the ER are mainly performed by three sets of proteins: (i) the translocation machinery that transports the nascent chain of a growing polypeptide through the ER membrane (reviewed in [18-21]). In mammalian cells translocation occurs predominantly co-translationally [22,23]- although post-translational import has also been described [24-26]. The translocation site is composed of membrane proteins that target the ribosome-bound nascent chain to the cytosolic face of the ER membrane [27-30], and of proteins that form an ER-membrane channel through which the polypeptide is translocated [31-34]. On the lumenal site of the ER membrane, an oligosaccharyl trans- ferase catalyzes co-translational N-glycosylation of most polypeptides [35,36]; (ii) molecular chaperones that are present as soluble proteins in the lumen of the ER or in a membrane-bound form facing the lumen of the ER (reviewed in [37]). Chaperones associate with nascent chains or with the polypeptide after its release from the ribosome in order to control and facilitate proper folding and assembly of the newly synthesized protein (reviewed in [38-40]). An abun- dant soluble ER-chaperone is BiP/grp74 [41] that not only modulates protein folding in the ER lumen but also seems to play a role in translocation of precursors across the ER membrane [42]. Calnexin, a transmembrane protein, and its soluble homologue calreticulin are lectins that have been suggested to interact transiently with mono-glucosylated N-linked oligosaccharides during folding of glycoproteins