Yong Tae Kwon

A subset of proteins targeted by the N-end rule pathway bear degradation signals called N-degrons, whose determinants include destabilizing N-terminal residues. Our previous work identified mouse UBR1 and UBR2 as E3 ubiquitin ligases that recognize N-degrons. Such E3s are called N-recognins. We report here that while double-mutant UBR1(-/-) UBR2(-/-) mice die as early embryos, the rescued UBR1(-/-) UBR2(-/-) fibroblasts still retain the N-end rule pathway, albeit of lower activity than that of w

The enzymatic conjugation of arginine to the N-termini of proteins is a part of the ubiquitin-dependent N-end rule pathway of protein degradation. In mammals, three N-terminal residues-aspartate, glutamate, and cysteine-are substrates for arginylation. The mouse ATE1 gene encodes a family of Arg-tRNA-protein transferases (R-transferases) that mediate N-terminal arginylation. We constructed ATE1-lacking mouse strains and found that ATE1-/- embryos die with defects in heart development and in angi

Protein homeostasis (proteostasis) requires the timely degradation of misfolded proteins and their aggregates by protein quality control (PQC), of which molecular chaperones are an essential component. Compared with other cell types, PQC in neurons is particularly challenging because they have a unique cellular structure with long extensions. Making it worse, neurons are postmitotic, i.e., cannot dilute toxic substances by division, and, thus, are highly sensitive to misfolded proteins, especial

Abstract Targeted protein degradation allows targeting undruggable proteins for therapeutic applications as well as eliminating proteins of interest for research purposes. While several degraders that harness the proteasome or the lysosome have been developed, a technology that simultaneously degrades targets and accelerates cellular autophagic flux is still missing. In this study, we develop a general chemical tool and platform technology termed AUTOphagy-TArgeting Chimera (AUTOTAC), which empl

Macroautophagy mediates the selective degradation of proteins and non-proteinaceous cellular constituents. Here, we show that the N-end rule pathway modulates macroautophagy. In this mechanism, the autophagic adapter p62/SQSTM1/Sequestosome-1 is an N-recognin that binds type-1 and type-2 N-terminal degrons (N-degrons), including arginine (Nt-Arg). Both types of N-degrons bind its ZZ domain. By employing three-dimensional modeling, we developed synthetic ligands to p62 ZZ domain. The binding of N

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. The N-end rule pathway is one proteolytic pathway of the ubiquitin system. The recognition component of this pathway, called N-recognin or E3, binds to a destabilizing N-terminal residue of a substrate protein and participates in the formation of a substrate-linked multiubiquitin chain. We report the cloning of the mouse and human Ubr1 cDNAs and genes that encode a mammalian N-recognin called E3a

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the UBR1-encoded ubiquitin ligase (E3) of the N-end rule pathway mediates the targeting of substrate proteins in part through binding to their destabilizing N-terminal residues. The functions of the yeast N-end rule pathway include fidelity of chromosome segregation and the regulation of peptide import. Our previous work described the cloning of cDNA and a g

Substrates of the ubiquitin-dependent N-end rule pathway include proteins with destabilizing N-terminal residues. UBR1(-/-) mice, which lacked the pathway's ubiquitin ligase E3alpha, were viable and retained the N-end rule pathway. The present work describes the identification and analysis of mouse UBR2, a homolog of UBR1. We demonstrate that the substrate-binding properties of UBR2 are highly similar to those of UBR1, identifying UBR2 as the second E3 of the mammalian N-end rule pathway. UBR2(-

The N-end rule pathway is a ubiquitin-dependent system where E3 ligases called N-recognins, including UBR1 and UBR2, recognize type-1 (basic) and type-2 (bulky hydrophobic) N-terminal residues as part of N-degrons. We have recently reported an E3 family (termed UBR1 through UBR7) characterized by the 70-residue UBR box, among which UBR1, UBR2, UBR4, and UBR5 were captured during affinity-based proteomics with synthetic degrons. Here we characterized substrate binding specificity and recognition

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. The underlying ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system, called the N-end rule pathway, is organized hierarchically: N-terminal aspartate and glutamate (and also cysteine in metazoans) are secondary destabilizing residues, in that they function through their conjugation, by arginyl-tRNA-protein transferase (R-transferase), to arginine, a primary destabilizing residue. We isolated cDNA encoding the

Abstract Autophagic receptor p62 is a critical mediator of cell detoxification, stress response, and metabolic programs and is commonly deregulated in human diseases. The diverse functions of p62 arise from its ability to interact with a large set of ligands, such as arginylated (Nt-R) substrates. Here, we describe the structural mechanism for selective recognition of Nt-R by the ZZ domain of p62 (p62 ZZ ). We show that binding of p62 ZZ to Nt-R substrates stimulates p62 aggregation and macroaut

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. N-terminal asparagine and glutamine are tertiary destabilizing residues, in that they are enzymatically deamidated to yield secondary destabilizing residues aspartate and glutamate, which are conjugated to arginine, a primary destabilizing residue. N-terminal arginine of a substrate protein is bound by the Ubr1-encoded E3alpha, the E3 component of the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent N-end rule pat