Using guanidine-hydrochloride for fast and efficient protein digestion and single-step affinity-purification mass spectrometry.

Protein digestion is an integral part of the "shotgun" proteomics approach and commonly requires overnight incubation prior to mass spectrometry analysis. Quadruplicate "shotgun" proteomic analysis of whole yeast lysate demonstrated that Guanidine-Hydrochloride (Gnd-HCl) protein digestion can be optimally completed within 30 min with endoprotease Lys-C. No chemical artifacts were introduced when samples were incubated in Gnd-HCl at 95 °C, making Gnd-HCl an appropriate digestion buffer for shotgun proteomics. Current methodologies for investigating protein-protein interactions (PPIs) often require several preparation steps, which prolongs any parallel operation and high-throughput interaction analysis. Gnd-HCl allow the efficient elution and subsequent fast digestion of PPIs to provide a convenient high-throughput methodology for affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) experiments. To validate the Gnd-HCl approach, label-free PPI analysis of several GFP-tagged yeast deubiquitinating enzymes was performed. The identification of known interaction partners demonstrates the utility of the optimized Gnd-HCl protocol that is also scalable to the 96 well-plate format.

Mass spectrometric analysis of lysine ubiquitylation reveals promiscuity at site level.

The covalent attachment of ubiquitin to proteins regulates numerous processes in eukaryotic cells. Here we report the identification of 753 unique lysine ubiquitylation sites on 471 proteins using higher-energy collisional dissociation on the LTQ Orbitrap Velos. In total 5756 putative ubiquitin substrates were identified. Lysine residues targeted by the ubiquitin-ligase system show no unique sequence feature. Surface accessible lysine residues located in ordered secondary regions, surrounded by smaller and positively charged amino acids are preferred sites of ubiquitylation. Lysine ubiquitylation shows promiscuity at the site level, as evidenced by low evolutionary conservation of ubiquitylation sites across eukaryotic species. Among lysine modifications a significant overlap (20%) between ubiquitylation and acetylation at site level highlights extensive competitive crosstalk among these modifications. This site-specific crosstalk is not prevalent among cell cycle ubiquitylations. Between SUMOylation and ubiquitylation the preferred interaction is through mixed-chain conjugation. Overall these data provide novel insights into the site-specific selection and regulatory function of lysine ubiquitylation.

Biotin starvation causes mitochondrial protein hyperacetylation and partial rescue by the SIRT3-like deacetylase Hst4p.

The essential vitamin biotin is a covalent and tenaciously attached prosthetic group in several carboxylases that play important roles in the regulation of energy metabolism. Here we describe increased acetyl-CoA levels and mitochondrial hyperacetylation as downstream metabolic effects of biotin deficiency. Upregulated mitochondrial acetylation sites correlate with the cellular deficiency of the Hst4p deacetylase, and a biotin-starvation-induced accumulation of Hst4p in mitochondria supports a role for Hst4p in lowering mitochondrial acetylation. We show that biotin starvation and knockout of Hst4p cause alterations in cellular respiration and an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results suggest that Hst4p plays a pivotal role in biotin metabolism and cellular energy homeostasis, and supports that Hst4p is a functional yeast homologue of the sirtuin deacetylase SIRT3. With biotin deficiency being involved in various metabolic disorders, this study provides valuable insight into the metabolic effects biotin exerts on eukaryotic cells.

Comprehensive profiling of proteome changes upon sequential deletion of deubiquitylating enzymes.

Deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) are a large group of proteases that regulate ubiquitin-dependent metabolic pathways by cleaving ubiquitin-protein bonds. Here we present a global study aimed at elucidating the effects DUBs have on protein abundance changes in eukaryotic cells. To this end we compare wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae to 20 DUB knock-out strains using quantitative proteomics to measure proteome-wide expression of isotope labeled proteins, and analyze the data in the context of known transcription-factor regulatory networks. Overall we find that protein abundances differ widely between individual deletion strains, demonstrating that removing just a single component from the complex ubiquitin system causes major changes in cellular protein expression. The outcome of our analysis confirms many of the known biological roles for characterized DUBs such as Ubp3p and Ubp8p, and we demonstrate that Sec28p is a novel Ubp3p substrate. In addition we find strong associations for several uncharacterized DUBs providing clues for their possible cellular roles. Hierarchical clustering of all deletion strains reveals pronounced similarities between various DUBs, which corroborate current DUB knowledge and uncover novel functional aspects for uncharacterized DUBs. Observations in our analysis support that DUBs induce both direct and indirect effects on protein abundances.

Systems-wide analysis of ubiquitylation dynamics reveals a key role for PAF15 ubiquitylation in DNA-damage bypass.

Protein ubiquitylation has emerged as a key regulatory mechanism in DNA-damage signalling and repair pathways. We report a proteome-wide, site-specific survey of ubiquitylation changes after ultraviolet irradiation, identifying numerous upregulated and downregulated ubiquitylation sites on known components of DNA-damage signalling, as well as on proteins not previously implicated in this process. Our results uncover a critical role for PCNA-associated factor PAF15 (p15(PAF)/KIAA0101) ubiquitylation during DNA replication. During unperturbed S phase, chromatin-associated PAF15 is modified by double mono-ubiquitylation of Lys 15 and 24 templated through PCNA binding. Replication blocks trigger rapid, proteasome-dependent removal of Lys 15/24-ubiquitylated PAF15 from PCNA, facilitating bypass of replication-fork-blocking lesions by allowing recruitment of translesion DNA synthesis polymerase polη to mono-ubiquitylated PCNA at stalled replisomes. Our findings demonstrate widespread involvement of ubiquitin signalling in genotoxic-stress responses and identify a critical function for dynamic PAF15 ubiquitylation in safeguarding genome integrity when DNA replication is challenged.