Dataset Information

Expression and Regulation of Deubiquitinase-Resistant, Unanchored Ubiquitin Chains in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The modifier protein, ubiquitin (Ub) regulates various cellular pathways by controlling the fate of substrates to which it is conjugated. Ub moieties are also conjugated to each other, forming chains of various topologies. In cells, poly-Ub is attached to proteins and also exists in unanchored form. Accumulation of unanchored poly-Ub is thought to be harmful and quickly dispersed through dismantling by deubiquitinases (DUBs). We wondered whether disassembly by DUBs is necessary to control unanchored Ub chains in vivo. We generated Drosophila melanogaster lines that express Ub chains non-cleavable into mono-Ub by DUBs. These chains are rapidly modified with different linkages and represent various types of unanchored species. We found that unanchored poly-Ub is not devastating in Drosophila, under normal conditions or during stress. The DUB-resistant, free Ub chains are degraded by the proteasome, at least in part through the assistance of VCP and its cofactor, p47. Also, unanchored poly-Ub that cannot be cleaved by DUBs can be conjugated en bloc, in vivo. Our results indicate that unanchored poly-Ub species need not be intrinsically toxic; they can be controlled independently of DUB-based disassembly by being degraded, or through conjugation onto other proteins.

SUBMITTER: Blount JR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5981470 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Expression and Regulation of Deubiquitinase-Resistant, Unanchored Ubiquitin Chains in Drosophila.

Blount Jessica R JR Libohova Kozeta K Marsh Gregory B GB Sutton Joanna R JR Todi Sokol V SV

Scientific reports 20180531 1

The modifier protein, ubiquitin (Ub) regulates various cellular pathways by controlling the fate of substrates to which it is conjugated. Ub moieties are also conjugated to each other, forming chains of various topologies. In cells, poly-Ub is attached to proteins and also exists in unanchored form. Accumulation of unanchored poly-Ub is thought to be harmful and quickly dispersed through dismantling by deubiquitinases (DUBs). We wondered whether disassembly by DUBs is necessary to control unanch ...[more]

PMID: 29855490

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Project description:Post-translational control by ubiquitin regulates various aspects of cellular biology. This chemical modification on proteins presents itself in numerous iterations, from a single mono-ubiquitination event to chains of poly-ubiquitin. Among the various types of poly-ubiquitin constructed are untethered species that comprise a series of ubiquitin moieties linked to one another, but free from another protein. The current notion is that these unanchored poly-ubiquitin species are deleterious to the cell and are rapidly deconstructed. We recently examined the toxicity and utilization of untethered poly-ubiquitin in an intact organism by using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We found that these ubiquitin species are largely innocuous to flies and that free poly-Ub can be controlled by being degraded by the proteasome or being conjugated onto another protein as a single unit. However, whether the fly is mounting an organismal defense against untethered chains was not explored in detail. Here, we conducted RNA-seq analyses to examine at the transcriptome level the impact of unanchored poly-Ub in the fly. We found ~90 transcripts whose expression is altered in the presence of different types of unanchored poly-ubiquitin. The set of genes identified was mostly devoid of ubiquitin-, proteasome- or autophagy-related components. The largest gene ontology category identified, housing ~15 of the altered genes, was proteolysis. The seeming absence of a large and multipronged response to unanchored ubiquitin chains in the fly supports the conclusion that these species need not be toxic in vivo and underscores the need to reexamine the role of free ubiquitin chains in the cell. We designed two types of poly-Ub chains with six Ub molecules in tandem. They cannot be cleaved by DUBs (there are no "GG" motifs linking the Ub molecules). Ub6-GG can be conjugated in toto onto other proteins; Ub6-Stop cannot. We drove ubiquitous expression using sqh-Gal4, and then performed RNA-Seq on adult flies to determine any cellular response to the presence of our unanchored Ub chains.

Dataset Information

Expression and Regulation of Deubiquitinase-Resistant, Unanchored Ubiquitin Chains in Drosophila.

Publications

Expression and Regulation of Deubiquitinase-Resistant, Unanchored Ubiquitin Chains in Drosophila.

Similar Datasets

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