The METTL20 Homologue from Agrobacterium tumefaciens Is a Dual Specificity Protein-lysine Methyltransferase That Targets Ribosomal Protein L7/L12 and the ? Subunit of Electron Transfer Flavoprotein (ETF?).
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ABSTRACT: Human METTL20 is a mitochondrial, lysine-specific methyltransferase that methylates the ?-subunit of electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF?). Interestingly, putative METTL20 orthologues are found in a subset of ?-proteobacteria, including Agrobacterium tumefaciens Using an activity-based approach, we identified in bacterial extracts two substrates of recombinant METTL20 from A. tumefaciens (AtMETTL20), namely ETF? and the ribosomal protein RpL7/L12. We show that AtMETTL20, analogous to the human enzyme, methylates ETF? on Lys-193 and Lys-196 both in vitro and in vivo ETF plays a key role in mediating electron transfer from various dehydrogenases, and we found that its electron transferring ability was diminished by AtMETTL20-mediated methylation of ETF?. Somewhat surprisingly, AtMETTL20 also catalyzed monomethylation of RpL7/L12 on Lys-86, a common modification also found in many bacteria that lack METTL20. Thus, we here identify AtMETTL20 as the first enzyme catalyzing RpL7/L12 methylation. In summary, here we have identified and characterized a novel bacterial lysine-specific methyltransferase with unprecedented dual substrate specificity within the seven ?-strand class of lysine-specific methyltransferases, as it targets two apparently unrelated substrates, ETF? and RpL7/L12. Moreover, the present work establishes METTL20-mediated methylation of ETF? as the first lysine methylation event occurring in both bacteria and humans.
SUBMITTER: Malecki J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4850296 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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