An Acetyldegron Triggers CRBN to Take Down the "Q".

In this issue of Molecular Cell, Nguyen et al. (2016) show that p300/CBP-mediated acetylation of glutamine synthetase (GS) triggers recognition by the CRL4(CRBN) E3 ubiquitin ligase, resulting in its ubiquitylation and degradation in response to high glutamine concentrations.

Interchangeable adaptors regulate mitochondrial dynamin assembly for membrane scission.

Mitochondrial fission is mediated by the dynamin-related GTPases Dnm1/Drp1 (yeast/mammals), which form spirals around constricted sites on mitochondria. Additional membrane-associated adaptor proteins (Fis1, Mdv1, Mff, and MiDs) are required to recruit these GTPases from the cytoplasm to the mitochondrial surface. Whether these adaptors participate in both GTPase recruitment and membrane scission is not known. Here we use a yeast strain lacking all fission proteins to identify the minimal combinations of GTPases and adaptors sufficient for mitochondrial fission. Although Fis1 is dispensable for fission, membrane-anchored Mdv1, Mff, or MiDs paired individually with their respective GTPases are sufficient to divide mitochondria. In addition to their role in Drp1 membrane recruitment, MiDs coassemble with Drp1 in vitro. The resulting heteropolymer adopts a dramatically different structure with a narrower diameter than Drp1 homopolymers assembled in isolation. This result demonstrates that an adaptor protein alters the architecture of a mitochondrial dynamin GTPase polymer in a manner that could facilitate membrane constriction and severing activity.

Structural basis for ubiquitin recognition by the human ESCRT-II EAP45 GLUE domain.

The ESCRT-I and ESCRT-II complexes help sort ubiquitinated proteins into vesicles that accumulate within multivesicular bodies (MVBs). Crystallographic and biochemical analyses reveal that the GLUE domain of the human ESCRT-II EAP45 (also called VPS36) subunit is a split pleckstrin-homology domain that binds ubiquitin along one edge of the beta-sandwich. The structure suggests how human ESCRT-II can couple recognition of ubiquitinated cargoes and endosomal phospholipids during MVB protein sorting.

Tissue-Specific Regulation of the Wnt/ß-Catenin Pathway by PAGE4 Inhibition of Tankyrase.

Spatiotemporal control of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling is critical for organism development and homeostasis. The poly-(ADP)-ribose polymerase Tankyrase (TNKS1) promotes Wnt/ß-catenin signaling through PARylation-mediated degradation of AXIN1, a component of the ß-catenin destruction complex. Although Wnt/ß-catenin is a niche-restricted signaling program, tissue-specific factors that regulate TNKS1 are not known. Here, we report prostate-associated gene 4 (PAGE4) as a tissue-specific TNKS1 inhibitor that robustly represses canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling in human cells, zebrafish, and mice. Structural and biochemical studies reveal that PAGE4 acts as an optimal substrate decoy that potently hijacks substrate binding sites on TNKS1 to prevent AXIN1 PARylation and degradation. Consistently, transgenic expression of PAGE4 in mice phenocopies TNKS1 knockout. Physiologically, PAGE4 is selectively expressed in stromal prostate fibroblasts and functions to establish a proper Wnt/ß-catenin signaling niche through suppression of autocrine signaling. Our findings reveal a non-canonical mechanism for TNKS1 inhibition that functions to establish tissue-specific control of the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway.

Correction: γKlotho is a novel marker and cell survival factor in a subset of triple negative breast cancers.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.6006.].

γKlotho is a novel marker and cell survival factor in a subset of triple negative breast cancers.

Over the last decade, breast cancer mortality has declined. However, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains a challenging problem mostly due to early recurrence and lack of molecularly driven treatments. There is a critical need to identify subgroups of TNBC with common molecular features that can be therapeutically targeted. Here we show that in contrast to Klotho and ßKlotho, the third member of the Klotho protein family, γKlotho, is overexpressed in more than 60% of TNBCs and correlates with poorer disease progression. Furthermore, we find that γKlotho is expressed in a subset of TNBC cell lines promoting cell growth. Importantly, we demonstrate that in these cells γKlotho is necessary for cell survival and that its depletion leads to constitutive ERK activation, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Interestingly, we observe increased oxidative stress in γKlotho-depleted cells suggesting that γKlotho enables cancer cells to cope with an oxidative environment and that cells become dependent on its expression to maintain this survival advantage. These findings indicate that γKlotho might be a potential marker for patients that would benefit from treatments that alter oxidative stress and constitutes a novel drug target for a subset of TN breast cancers.

The mitochondrial fission adaptors Caf4 and Mdv1 are not functionally equivalent.

Mitochondrial fission in eukaryotes is mediated by protein complexes that encircle and divide mitochondrial tubules. In budding yeast, fission requires the membrane-anchored protein Fis1 and the dynamin-related GTPase Dnm1. Dnm1 is recruited to mitochondria via interactions with the adaptor proteins Caf4 and Mdv1, which bind directly to Fis1. Unlike Mdv1, a function for Caf4 in mitochondrial membrane scission has not been established. In this study, we demonstrate that Caf4 is a bona fide fission adaptor that assembles at sites of mitochondrial division. We also show that fission complexes may contain Caf4 alone or both Caf4 and Mdv1 without compromising fission function. Although there is a correspondence between Caf4 and Mdv1 expression levels and their contribution to fission, the two adaptor proteins are not equivalent. Rather, our functional and phylogenetic analyses indicate that Caf4 mitochondrial fission activity has diverged from that of Mdv1.

Molecular architecture of a dynamin adaptor: implications for assembly of mitochondrial fission complexes.

Recruitment and assembly of some dynamin-related guanosine triphosphatases depends on adaptor proteins restricted to distinct cellular membranes. The yeast Mdv1 adaptor localizes to mitochondria by binding to the membrane protein Fis1. Subsequent Mdv1 binding to the mitochondrial dynamin Dnm1 stimulates Dnm1 assembly into spirals, which encircle and divide the mitochondrial compartment. In this study, we report that dimeric Mdv1 is joined at its center by a 92-Å antiparallel coiled coil (CC). Modeling of the Fis1-Mdv1 complex using available crystal structures suggests that the Mdv1 CC lies parallel to the bilayer with N termini at opposite ends bound to Fis1 and C-terminal ß-propeller domains (Dnm1-binding sites) extending into the cytoplasm. A CC length of appropriate length and sequence is necessary for optimal Mdv1 interaction with Fis1 and Dnm1 and is important for proper Dnm1 assembly before membrane scission. Our results provide a framework for understanding how adaptors act as scaffolds to orient and stabilize the assembly of dynamins on membranes.