The alkynyl fatty acid analogue is incorporated by the endogenous palmitoylation machinery into native sites palmitoylation

The alkynyl fatty acid analogue is incorporated by the endogenous palmitoylation machinery into native sites palmitoylation. weeks before the classic discovery of tyrosine phosphorylation[1C2], yet more than 30 years later on, the importance of palmitoylation is only right now getting significant attention like a common, dynamic post-translational changes. This is likely due to a historical lack of robust methods for sensitive analysis of this nonpolar, nonantigenic changes. Until recently, the only method to study palmitoylation involved metabolic labeling with [3H]-palmitate, followed by lengthy exposure times ranging from days to weeks. Given the lack of straightforward methods, the dynamics and rules of protein palmitoylation is largely unexplored. Protein palmitoylation is clearly important in creating the spatial localization of many well analyzed signaling complexes. Cellular transformation by oncogenic v-Hras (H-RasG12V) requires membrane anchoring[3C4], and mutation of a single palmitoylation site eliminates the proteins oncogenic potential[3]. The pace of palmitate turnover on inactive GDP-bound H-Ras is definitely accelerated 15 instances upon activation[5]. Similarly, activation of G-alpha-s accelerates palmitate turnover nearly 50-collapse[6]. Similar findings have been observed for the synaptic scaffolding protein PSD-95, which is definitely rapidly depalmitoylated following glutamate activation[7]. Based on these observations, dynamic palmitoylation may be a general regulatory mechanism controlling signal-dependent spatial localization. The goal of this evaluate is to present recent improvements for the detection, annotation, and quantification of dynamic palmitoylation, as well as a discussion of the potential for thioesterase inhibitors to modulate important signaling pathways. Non-radioactive detection of Palmitoylation Two complementary methods have been developed in recent years for the non-radioactive detection, enrichment, and mass spectrometry-based annotation of palmitoylated proteins. The first method, termed acyl-biotin exchange, is useful for the static analysis of palmitoylated proteins in native cells or cells[8C10]. In this method, lysates are 1st treated with SB 415286 methyl methanethiosulfonate (MMTS) or maleimide to block free thiols. Next, thioesters are hydrolyzed with hydroxylamine, which liberating the acyl chain and exposes fresh free thiols for disulfide capture[11]. One drawback to this approach is the enrichment of proteins with native thioesters, such as ubiquitin ligases and lipoamide-linked dehydrogenases. New modifications of this approach employ thiol resins for more simplified enrichment[12] (Number 1A). Open in a separate window Number 1 Methods for palmitoylated protein enrichment. (A) Resin-assisted capture FIGF of hydroxylamine-sensitive cellular thioesters for static analysis of palmitoylation. After reduction and alkylation, lysates are treated with hydroxylamine to hydrolyze thioesters. Free thiols are captured by disulfide formation using thiopropyl sepharose resin. (B) Bioorthogonal enrichment of 17-ODYA metabolically labeled sites of palmitoylation. Biotin-azide is definitely conjugated by click chemistry to 17-ODYA labeled proteins for streptavidin enrichment. The second method uses metabolic labeling with the bioorthogonal fatty acid analogue 17-octadecynoic acid. The alkynyl fatty acid analogue is integrated from the endogenous palmitoylation machinery into native sites palmitoylation. After lysis, labeled proteins are ligated to azide-linked reporter tags by click chemistry[13C14] (Number 1B). Importantly, all reagents are commercially available and relatively inexpensive. The key advantages are a simplified workflow, high level of sensitivity, reduced non-specific labeling, and the ability to examine palmitoylation turnover dynamics by classic pulse-chase methods. Unlike ABE, this method only enriches native sites of long-chain fatty acid modification, and not additional endogenous thioesters[9C10]. Both enrichment methods have been used to globally annotate palmitoylated proteins by mass spectrometry in a variety of organisms, cells, and cell lines[9C10,13,15C17]. Completely, more than 500 palmitoylated proteins have been annotated in mammalian cells. This list consists of both integral and membrane-associated proteins, including channels, receptors, and scaffolding proteins. Based on these results, there are likely thousands of palmitoylated cysteine residues in the proteome[15], solidifying SB 415286 protein palmitoylation as pervasive as additional widely analyzed polar post-translational modifications. Quantitative Analysis of Palmitoylation Ras is the prototypical palmitoylated protein, and has been used like a model to study the spatial corporation, dynamics, and turnover of protein palmitoylation. Upon microinjection of fluorescent, palmitoylated N-Ras, the semi-synthetic protein rapidly distributes to all membranes, and enters a pathway of dynamic palmitoylation and de-palmitoylation[18C19]. N-Ras is definitely SB 415286 quickly de-palmitoylated in the periphery, but re-palmitoylated in the golgi and recycled back to the plasma membrane through the secretory pathway. Complementary live-cell fluorescence imaging with transfected photo-convertible fluorescent protein fusions confirmed these observations. Based on these experiments, palmitoylation is definitely hypothesized to stabilize the SB 415286 membrane attachment and increase the SB 415286 residency time of N-Ras in the plasma membrane[20]. This specific example demonstrates how dynamic palmitoylation can promote spatial corporation and function of a key.