scholarly journals The ARRE RING-Type E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Negatively Regulates Cuticular Wax Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana by Controlling ECERIFERUM1 and ECERIFERUM3 Protein Levels

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Liu ◽  
Meixuezi Tong ◽  
Lifang Zhao ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Ljerka Kunst

The outer epidermal cell walls of plant shoots are covered with a cuticle, a continuous lipid structure that provides protection from desiccation, UV light, pathogens, and insects. The cuticle is mostly composed of cutin and cuticular wax. Cuticular wax synthesis is synchronized with surface area expansion during plant development and is associated with plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Cuticular wax deposition is tightly regulated by well-established transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, as well as post-translationally via the ubiquitin-26S proteasome system (UPS). The UPS is highly conserved in eukaryotes and involves the covalent attachment of polyubiquitin chains to the target protein by an E3 ligase, followed by the degradation of the modified protein by the 26S proteasome. A large number of E3 ligases are encoded in the Arabidopsis genome, but only a few have been implicated in the regulation of cuticular wax deposition. In this study, we have conducted an E3 ligase reverse genetic screen and identified a novel RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase, AtARRE, which negatively regulates wax biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis plants overexpressing AtARRE exhibit glossy stems and siliques, reduced fertility and fusion between aerial organs. Wax load and wax compositional analyses of AtARRE overexpressors showed that the alkane-forming branch of the wax biosynthetic pathway is affected. Co-expression of AtARRE and candidate target proteins involved in alkane formation in both Nicotiana benthamiana and stable Arabidopsis transgenic lines demonstrated that AtARRE controls the levels of wax biosynthetic enzymes ECERIFERUM1 (CER1) and ECERIFERUM3 (CER3). CER1 has also been confirmed to be a ubiquitination substrate of the AtARRE E3 ligase by an in vivo ubiquitination assay using a reconstituted Escherichia coli system. The AtARRE gene is expressed throughout the plant, with the highest expression detected in fully expanded rosette leaves and oldest stem internodes. AtARRE gene expression can also be induced by exposure to pathogens. These findings reveal that wax biosynthesis in mature plant tissues and in response to pathogen infection is controlled post-translationally.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masashi Watanabe ◽  
Yasushi Saeki ◽  
Hidehisa Takahashi ◽  
Fumiaki Ohtake ◽  
Yukiko Yoshida ◽  
...  

Abstract The identification of true substrates of an E3 ligase is biologically important but biochemically difficult. In recent years, several techniques for identifying substrates have been developed, but these approaches cannot exclude indirect ubiquitination or have other limitations. Here we develop an E3 ligase substrate-trapping strategy by fusing a tandem ubiquitin-binding entity (TUBE) with an anti-ubiquitin remnant antibody to effectively identify ubiquitinated substrates. We apply this method to one of the RBR-type ligases, Parkin, and to one of the RING-type ligases, TRIM28, and identify previously unknown substrates for TRIM28 including cyclin A2 and TFIIB. Furthermore, we find that TRIM28 promotes cyclin A2 ubiquitination and degradation at the G1/S phase and suppresses premature entry into S phase. Taken together, the results indicate that this method is a powerful tool for comprehensively identifying substrates of E3 ligases.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schiedel ◽  
Attila Lehotzky ◽  
Sándor Szunyogh ◽  
Judit Oláh ◽  
Sören Hammelmann ◽  
...  

We have discovered the sirtuin rearranging ligands (SirReals) as a novel class of highly potent and selective inhibitors of the NAD+-dependent lysine deacetylase sirtuin 2 (Sirt2). In previous studies, conjugation of a SirReal with a ligand for the E3 ubiquitin ligase cereblon to form a so-called proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC), enabled small molecule-induced degradation of Sirt2. Here, we report the structure-based development of a chloroalkylated SirReal that induces the degradation of Sirt2 mediated by Halo-tagged E3 ubiquitin ligases. Using this orthogonal approach for Sirt2 degradation, we show that also other E3 ligases than cereblon, such as the E3 ubiquitin ligase parkin, can be harnessed for small molecule-induced Sirt2 degradation, thereby emphasizing the great potential of parkin to be utilized as an E3 ligase for new PROTACs approaches. Thus, our study provides new insights into targeted protein degradation in general and Sirt2 degradation in particular.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 9386
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Jian-ye Chen ◽  
Ze-xiang Zeng ◽  
Jian-fei Kuang ◽  
Wang-jin Lu ◽  
...  

Harvested banana fruit ripened under warm temperatures above 24 °C remain green peel, leading to severe economic loss. E3 ubiquitin-ligases, as the major components in the ubiquitination pathway, have been implicated to play important roles in temperature-stress responses. However, the molecular mechanism underlying high temperature-triggered stay-green ripening bananas in association with E3 ubiquitin-ligases, remains largely unknown. In this study, a RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase termed MaLUL2, was isolated and characterized from banana fruit. The MaLUL2 gene contains 1095 nucleotides and encodes a protein with 365 amino acids. The MaLUL2 protein contains a domain associated with RING2 (DAR2) and a RING domain, which are the typical characteristics of RING-type E3 ligases. MaLUL2 expression was up-regulated during high temperature-induced green ripening. Subcellular localization showed that MaLUL2 localized in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and plasma membrane. MaLUL2 displayed E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in vitro. More importantly, transient overexpression of MaLUL2 in banana fruit peel increased the level of ubiquitination in vivo and led to a stay-green phenotype, accompanying with decreased expression of chlorophyll catabolic genes. Collectively, these findings suggest that MaLUL2 might act as a negative regulator of chlorophyll degradation and provide novel insights into the regulatory mechanism of high temperature-induced green ripening bananas.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schiedel ◽  
Attila Lehotzky ◽  
Sándor Szunyogh ◽  
Judit Oláh ◽  
Sören Hammelmann ◽  
...  

We have discovered the sirtuin rearranging ligands (SirReals) as a novel class of highly potent and selective inhibitors of the NAD+-dependent lysine deacetylase sirtuin 2 (Sirt2). In previous studies, conjugation of a SirReal with a ligand for the E3 ubiquitin ligase cereblon to form a so-called proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC), enabled small molecule-induced degradation of Sirt2. Here, we report the structure-based development of a chloroalkylated SirReal that induces the degradation of Sirt2 mediated by Halo-tagged E3 ubiquitin ligases. Using this orthogonal approach for Sirt2 degradation, we show that also other E3 ligases than cereblon, such as the E3 ubiquitin ligase parkin, can be harnessed for small molecule-induced Sirt2 degradation, thereby emphasizing the great potential of parkin to be utilized as an E3 ligase for new PROTACs approaches. Thus, our study provides new insights into targeted protein degradation in general and Sirt2 degradation in particular.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5712
Author(s):  
Michał Tracz ◽  
Ireneusz Górniak ◽  
Andrzej Szczepaniak ◽  
Wojciech Białek

The SPL2 protein is an E3 ubiquitin ligase of unknown function. It is one of only three types of E3 ligases found in the outer membrane of plant chloroplasts. In this study, we show that the cytosolic fragment of SPL2 binds lanthanide ions, as evidenced by fluorescence measurements and circular dichroism spectroscopy. We also report that SPL2 undergoes conformational changes upon binding of both Ca2+ and La3+, as evidenced by its partial unfolding. However, these structural rearrangements do not interfere with SPL2 enzymatic activity, as the protein retains its ability to auto-ubiquitinate in vitro. The possible applications of lanthanide-based probes to identify protein interactions in vivo are also discussed. Taken together, the results of this study reveal that the SPL2 protein contains a lanthanide-binding site, showing for the first time that at least some E3 ubiquitin ligases are also capable of binding lanthanide ions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Carla Coppola

In this study, I focused on a new family of receptors, called RMRs (Receptor-like Membrane RING-H2) and I tried to investigate their role in the moss Physcomitrium patens Mitten (previously Physcomitrella patens). There is some evidence that in Angiosperms, RMRs are vacuolar receptors for the neutral/storage vacuole that is a compartment where storage proteins and metabolites are accumulated during seeds development or in somatic tissues. It is distinguished from lytic vacuole which has the same functions as animal lysosomes. The five PpRMR genes have been knocked-out, yielding viable material without visible phenotype (Ayachi, 2012). A trafficking phenotype was described by Fahr (2017) who generated the construct Citrine-Cardosin (Ci-Card) composed of the fluorescent protein Citrine fused to the C-terminal vacuolar sorting determinant (ctVSD) from cardosin A (cardosin is addressed to the vacuole in higher plants —Pereira et al., 2013). The fusion protein was delivered to the central vacuole of PpWT but mistargeted in PpRMR-KO lines, indicating that the targeting of this protein to the vacuole depends on PpRMRs. The introduction of this thesis presents the plant endomembrane system, with particular attention to vacuolar transport and ubiquitylation. In the second chapter, I show the techniques used to attempt to detect PpRMRs by Western Blot: our failure may be due to a rapid degradation of these proteins, which could prevent their detection. In the third chapter, I focused on PpRMR2 involvement in ubiquitylation. We hypothesize that PpRMRs are E3 ligases because they are members of the PA-TM-RING protein family. Most of these proteins have an E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in animals (Seroogy et al., 2004; Borchers et al., 2002), for this reason, we think that plant PpRMRs could have this function as well, which could contribute to vacuolar targeting. Indeed, I could confirm that PpRMR2 has an E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. PpRMRs substrates are still unknown in moss thus we have analysed putative candidates supposing that they could be ubiquitylated by PpRMRs. We have tested this hypothesis through in vitro ubiquitylation assays, obtaining ambiguous results. In the fourth chapter, I show preliminary results about the visible phenotype of PpRMR-KO mutants: PpWT and PpRMR-KO lines displayed phenotypic differences in leafy gametophores, which were accentuated upon salt stress exposure. Lastly, I transformed the transgenic lines PpWT/Ci-Card and Pp5KO/Ci-Card with mutated versions of PpRMR2 and analysed their effect on vacuolar transport by confocal microscopy. For most of the constructions tested, the trafficking was perturbed in both lines. Only PpWT/Ci-Card expressing PpRMR2ΔSer (lacking the Serine-Rich motif) displayed a typical vacuolar pattern.


Open Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 200041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuoyao Chen ◽  
Gregory A. Wasney ◽  
Sarah Picaud ◽  
Panagis Filippakopoulos ◽  
Masoud Vedadi ◽  
...  

Wnt signalling is dependent on dishevelled proteins (DVL1-3), which assemble an intracellular Wnt signalosome at the plasma membrane. The levels of DVL1-3 are regulated by multiple Cullin-RING E3 ligases that mediate their ubiquitination and degradation. The BTB-Kelch protein KLHL12 was the first E3 ubiquitin ligase to be identified for DVL1-3, but the molecular mechanisms determining its substrate interactions have remained unknown. Here, we mapped the interaction of DVL1-3 to a ‘PGXPP' motif that is conserved in other known partners and substrates of KLHL12, including PLEKHA4, PEF1, SEC31 and DRD4. To determine the binding mechanism, we solved a 2.4 Å crystal structure of the Kelch domain of KLHL12 in complex with a DVL1 peptide that bound with low micromolar affinity. The DVL1 substrate adopted a U-shaped turn conformation that enabled hydrophobic interactions with all six blades of the Kelch domain β-propeller. In cells, the mutation or deletion of this motif reduced the binding and ubiquitination of DVL1 and increased its stability confirming this sequence as a degron motif for KLHL12 recruitment. These results define the molecular mechanisms determining DVL regulation by KLHL12 and establish the KLHL12 Kelch domain as a new protein interaction module for a novel proline-rich motif.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (40) ◽  
pp. E9317-E9324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoyan Li ◽  
Yanjia Fang ◽  
Chunyi Niu ◽  
Hengyi Cao ◽  
Ting Mi ◽  
...  

Protooncogenec-MYC, a master transcription factor, is a major driver of human tumorigenesis. Development of pharmacological agents for inhibiting c-MYC as an anticancer therapy has been a longstanding but elusive goal in the cancer field. E3 ubiquitin ligase cIAP1 has been shown to mediate the activation of c-MYC by destabilizing MAD1, a key antagonist of c-MYC. Here we developed a high-throughput assay for cIAP1 ubiquitination and identified D19, a small-molecule inhibitor of E3 ligase activity of cIAP1. We show that D19 binds to the RING domain of cIAP1 and inhibits the E3 ligase activity of cIAP1 by interfering with the dynamics of its interaction with E2. Blocking cIAP1 with D19 antagonizes c-MYC by stabilizing MAD1 protein in cells. Furthermore, we show that D19 and an improved analog (D19-14) promote c-MYC degradation and inhibit the oncogenic function of c-MYC in cells and xenograft animal models. In contrast, we show that activating E3 ubiquitin ligase activity of cIAP1 by Smac mimetics destabilizes MAD1, the antagonist of MYC, and increases the protein levels of c-MYC. Our study provides an interesting example using chemical biological approaches for determining distinct biological consequences from inhibiting vs. activating an E3 ubiquitin ligase and suggests a potential broad therapeutic strategy for targeting c-MYC in cancer treatment by pharmacologically modulating cIAP1 E3 ligase activity.


eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam A Menzies ◽  
Norbert Volkmar ◽  
Dick JH van den Boomen ◽  
Richard T Timms ◽  
Anna S Dickson ◽  
...  

Mammalian HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR), the rate-limiting enzyme of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway and the therapeutic target of statins, is post-transcriptionally regulated by sterol-accelerated degradation. Under cholesterol-replete conditions, HMGCR is ubiquitinated and degraded, but the identity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase(s) responsible for mammalian HMGCR turnover remains controversial. Using systematic, unbiased CRISPR/Cas9 genome-wide screens with a sterol-sensitive endogenous HMGCR reporter, we comprehensively map the E3 ligase landscape required for sterol-accelerated HMGCR degradation. We find that RNF145 and gp78 independently co-ordinate HMGCR ubiquitination and degradation. RNF145, a sterol-responsive ER-resident E3 ligase, is unstable but accumulates following sterol depletion. Sterol addition triggers RNF145 recruitment to HMGCR via Insigs, promoting HMGCR ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation. In the absence of both RNF145 and gp78, Hrd1, a third UBE2G2-dependent E3 ligase, partially regulates HMGCR activity. Our findings reveal a critical role for the sterol-responsive RNF145 in HMGCR regulation and elucidate the complexity of sterol-accelerated HMGCR degradation.Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (<xref ref-type="decision-letter" rid="SA1">see decision letter</xref>).


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