Molecular chaperone implicated in a wide variety of cellular processes, including protection of the proteome from stress, folding and transport of newly synthesized polypeptides, activation of proteolysis of misfolded proteins and the formation and dissociation of protein complexes. Plays a pivotal role in the protein quality control system, ensuring the correct folding of proteins, the re-folding of misfolded proteins and controlling the targeting of proteins for subsequent degradation. This is achieved through cycles of ATP binding, ATP hydrolysis and ADP release, mediated by co-chaperones. The co-chaperones have been shown to not only regulate different steps of the ATPase cycle of HSP70, but they also have an individual specificity such that one co-chaperone may promote folding of a substrate while another may promote degradation. The affinity of HSP70 for polypeptides is regulated by its nucleotide bound state. In the ATP-bound form, it has a low affinity for substrate proteins. However, upon hydrolysis