A Comprehensive Tyrosine Phosphoproteomic Analysis Reveals Novel Components of the Platelet CLEC-2 Signaling Cascade.

C-type lectin-like receptor 2 (CLEC-2) plays a crucial role in different platelet-related physiological and pathological processes. It signals through a tyrosine kinase-mediated pathway that is highly dependent on the positive feedback exerted by the platelet-derived secondary mediators, adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and thromboxane A2 (TXA2). Here, we aimed to analyze the tyrosine phosphoproteome of platelets activated with the CLEC-2 agonist rhodocytin to identify relevant phosphorylated tyrosine residues (p-Tyr) and proteins involved in platelet activation downstream of this receptor. We identified 363 differentially p-Tyr residues, corresponding to the majority of proteins previously known to participate in CLEC-2 signaling and also novel ones, including adaptors (e.g., DAPP1, Dok1/3, CASS4, Nck1/2), kinases/phosphatases (e.g., FAK1, FES, FGR, JAK2, SHIP2), and membrane proteins (e.g., G6F, JAM-A, PECAM-1, TLT-1). To elucidate the contribution of ADP and TXA2 at different points of the CLEC-2 signaling cascade, we evaluated p-Tyr levels of residues identified in the analysis and known to be essential for the catalytic activity of kinases Syk(p-Tyr525+526) and Src(p-Tyr419), and for PLCγ2 activity (p-Tyr759). We demonstrated that Syk phosphorylation at Tyr525+526 also happens in the presence of ADP and TXA2 inhibitors, which is not the case for Src-pTyr419 and PLCγ2-pTyr759. Kinetics studies for the three phosphoproteins show some differences in the phosphorylation profile. Ca2+ mobilization assays confirmed the relevance of ADP and TXA2 for full CLEC-2-mediated platelet activation. The present study provides significant insights into the intracellular events that take place following CLEC-2 activation in platelets, contributing to elucidate in detail the CLEC-2 signalosome.

Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and B. pilosicoli Proteins Recognized by Sera of Challenged Pigs.

The spirochetes Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and B. pilosicoli are pig intestinal pathogens that are the causative agents of swine dysentery (SD) and porcine intestinal spirochaetosis (PIS), respectively. Although some inactivated bacterin and recombinant vaccines have been explored as prophylactic treatments against these species, no effective vaccine is yet available. Immunoproteomics approaches hold the potential for the identification of new, suitable candidates for subunit vaccines against SD and PIS. These strategies take into account the gene products actually expressed and present in the cells, and thus susceptible of being targets of immune recognition. In this context, we have analyzed the immunogenic pattern of two B. pilosicoli porcine isolates (the Spanish farm isolate OLA9 and the commercial P43/6/78 strain) and one B. hyodysenteriae isolate (the Spanish farm V1). The proteins from the Brachyspira lysates were fractionated by preparative isoelectric focusing, and the fractions were analyzed by Western blot with hyperimmune sera from challenged pigs. Of the 28 challenge-specific immunoreactive bands detected, 21 were identified as single proteins by MS, while the other 7 were shown to contain several major proteins. None of these proteins were detected in the control immunoreactive bands. The proteins identified included 11 from B. hyodysenteriae and 28 from the two B. pilosicoli strains. Eight proteins were common to the B. pilosicoli strains (i.e., elongation factor G, aspartyl-tRNA synthase, biotin lipoyl, TmpB outer membrane protein, flagellar protein FlaA, enolase, PEPCK, and VspD), and enolase and PEPCK were common to both species. Many of the identified proteins were flagellar proteins or predicted to be located on the cell surface and some of them had been previously described as antigenic or as bacterial virulence factors. Here we report on the identification and semiquantitative data of these immunoreactive proteins which constitute a unique antigen collection from these bacteria.

Large-Scale Filter-Aided Sample Preparation Method for the Analysis of the Ubiquitinome.

Protein ubiquitination regulates key cellular functions, including protein homeostasis and signal transduction. The digestion of ubiquitinated proteins with trypsin yields a glycine-glycine remnant bound to the modified lysine residue (K-ε-GG) that can be recognized by specific antibodies for immunoaffinity purification (IAP) and subsequent identification of ubiquitination sites by mass spectrometry. Previous ubiquitinome studies based on this strategy have consistently digested milligram amounts of protein as starting material using in-solution digestion protocols prior to K-ε-GG enrichment. Filter-aided sample preparation (FASP) surpasses in-solution protein digestion in cleavage efficiency, but its performance has thus far been shown for digestion of sample amounts on the order of micrograms. Because cleavage efficiency is pivotal in the generation of the K-ε-GG epitope recognized during IAP, here we developed a large-scale FASP method (LFASP) for digestion of milligram amounts of protein and evaluated its applicability to the study of the ubiquitinome. Our results demonstrate that LFASP-based tryptic digestion is efficient, robust, reproducible, and applicable to the study of the ubiquitinome. We benchmark our results with state-of-the-art ubiquitinome studies and show a ∼3-fold reduction in the proportion of miscleaved peptides with the method presented here. Beyond ubiquitinome analysis, LFASP overcomes the general limitation in sample capacity of standard FASP-based protocols and can therefore be used for a variety of applications that demand a large(r) amount of starting material.