A quantitative and site-specific atlas of the citrullinome reveals widespread existence of citrullination and insights into PADI4 substrates.

Despite the importance of citrullination in physiology and disease, global identification of citrullinated proteins, and the precise targeted sites, has remained challenging. Here we employed quantitative-mass-spectrometry-based proteomics to generate a comprehensive atlas of citrullination sites within the HL60 leukemia cell line following differentiation into neutrophil-like cells. We identified 14,056 citrullination sites within 4,008 proteins and quantified their regulation upon inhibition of the citrullinating enzyme PADI4. With this resource, we provide quantitative and site-specific information on thousands of PADI4 substrates, including signature histone marks and transcriptional regulators. Additionally, using peptide microarrays, we demonstrate the potential clinical relevance of certain identified sites, through distinct reactivities of antibodies contained in synovial fluid from anti-CCP-positive and anti-CCP-negative people with rheumatoid arthritis. Collectively, we describe the human citrullinome at a systems-wide level, provide a resource for understanding citrullination at the mechanistic level and link the identified targeted sites to rheumatoid arthritis.

Characterizing ADP-Ribosylation Sites Using Af1521 Enrichment Coupled to ETD-Based Mass Spectrometry.

ADP-ribosylation is a posttranslational modification (PTM) that has crucial functions in a wide range of cellular processes. Although mass spectrometry (MS) in recent years has emerged as a valuable tool for profiling ADP-ribosylation on a system level, the use of conventional MS methods to profile ADP-ribosylation sites in an unbiased way remains a challenge. Here, we describe a protocol for identification of ADP-ribosylated proteins in vivo on a proteome-wide level, and localization of the amino acid side chains modified with this PTM. The method relies on the enrichment of ADP-ribosylated peptides using the Af1521 macrodomain (Karras GI, Kustatscher G, Buhecha HR, Allen MD, Pugieux C, Sait F, Bycroft M, Ladurner AG, EMBO J 24:1911-1920, 2005), followed by liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem MS (LC-MS/MS) with electron transfer dissociation-based peptide fragmentation methods, resulting in accurate localization of ADP-ribosylation sites. This protocol explains the step-by-step enrichment and identification of ADP-ribosylated peptides from cell culture to data processing using the MaxQuant software suite.

The regulatory landscape of the human HPF1- and ARH3-dependent ADP-ribosylome.

Despite the involvement of Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1) in many important biological pathways, the target residues of PARP1-mediated ADP-ribosylation remain ambiguous. To explicate the ADP-ribosylation regulome, we analyze human cells depleted for key regulators of PARP1 activity, histone PARylation factor 1 (HPF1) and ADP-ribosylhydrolase 3 (ARH3). Using quantitative proteomics, we characterize 1,596 ADP-ribosylation sites, displaying up to 1000-fold regulation across the investigated knockout cells. We find that HPF1 and ARH3 inversely and homogenously regulate the serine ADP-ribosylome on a proteome-wide scale with consistent adherence to lysine-serine-motifs, suggesting that targeting is independent of HPF1 and ARH3. Notably, we do not detect an HPF1-dependent target residue switch from serine to glutamate/aspartate under the investigated conditions. Our data support the notion that serine ADP-ribosylation mainly exists as mono-ADP-ribosylation in cells, and reveal a remarkable degree of histone co-modification with serine ADP-ribosylation and other post-translational modifications.