Quality control of protein complex composition.

Eukaryotic cells possess hundreds of protein complexes that contain multiple subunits and must be formed at the correct time and place during development. Despite specific assembly pathways, cells frequently encounter complexes with missing or aberrant subunits that can disrupt important signaling events. Cells, therefore, employ several ubiquitin-dependent quality control pathways that can prevent, correct, or degrade flawed complexes. In this review, we will discuss our emerging understanding of such quality control of protein complex composition.

Prospective discovery of small molecule enhancers of an E3 ligase-substrate interaction.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) governing the recognition of substrates by E3 ubiquitin ligases are critical to cellular function. There is significant therapeutic potential in the development of small molecules that modulate these interactions; however, rational design of small molecule enhancers of PPIs remains elusive. Herein, we report the prospective identification and rational design of potent small molecules that enhance the interaction between an oncogenic transcription factor, ß-Catenin, and its cognate E3 ligase, SCFß-TrCP. These enhancers potentiate the ubiquitylation of mutant ß-Catenin by ß-TrCP in vitro and induce the degradation of an engineered mutant ß-Catenin in a cellular system. Distinct from PROTACs, these drug-like small molecules insert into a naturally occurring PPI interface, with contacts optimized for both the substrate and ligase within the same small molecule entity. The prospective discovery of 'molecular glue' presented here provides a paradigm for the development of small molecule degraders targeting hard-to-drug proteins.

Structure of the Rpn11-Rpn8 dimer reveals mechanisms of substrate deubiquitination during proteasomal degradation.

Polyubiquitin chains target protein substrates to the 26S proteasome, where they are removed by the deubiquitinase Rpn11 to allow efficient substrate degradation. Despite Rpn11's essential function during substrate processing, its detailed structural and biochemical characterization has been hindered by difficulties in purifying the isolated enzyme. Here we report the 2.0-Å crystal structures of Zn(2+)-free and Zn(2+)-bound Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rpn11 in an MPN-domain heterodimer with Rpn8. The Rpn11-Rpn8 interaction occurs via two distinct interfaces that may be conserved in related MPN-domain complexes. Our structural and mutational studies reveal that Rpn11 lacks a conserved surface to bind the ubiquitin Ile44 patch, does not interact with the moiety on the proximal side of the scissile isopeptide bond and exhibits no linkage specificity for ubiquitin cleavage. These findings explain how Rpn11 functions as a promiscuous deubiquitinase for cotranslocational substrate deubiquitination during proteasomal degradation.