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Avid interactions underlie the Lys63-linked polyubiquitin binding specificities observed for UBA domains

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 16, pages 883–889 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Ubiquitin (denoted Ub) receptor proteins as a group must contain a diverse set of binding specificities to distinguish the many forms of polyubiquitin (polyUb) signals. Previous studies suggested that the large class of ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domains contains members with intrinsic specificity for Lys63-linked polyUb or Lys48-linked polyUb, thus explaining how UBA-containing proteins can mediate diverse signaling events. Here we show that previously observed Lys63-polyUb selectivity in UBA domains is the result of an artifact in which the dimeric fusion partner, glutathione S-transferase (GST), positions two UBAs for higher affinity, avid interactions with Lys63-polyUb, but not with Lys48-polyUb. Freed from GST, these UBAs are either nonselective or prefer Lys48-polyUb. Accordingly, NMR experiments reveal no Lys63-polyUb–specific binding epitopes for these UBAs. We reexamine previous conclusions based on GST-UBAs and present an alternative model for how UBAs achieve a diverse range of linkage specificities.

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Figure 1: GST-Ede1 UBA is selective for Lys63-linked polyUb.
Figure 2: CSP mapping of the interactions of Ede1 UBA with monoUb, Lys63-polyUb and Lys48-polyUb reveals no linkage-specific mode of interaction.
Figure 3: Free Ede1-UBA is not linkage selective.
Figure 4: The bivalency of GST-Ede1 UBA preferentially promotes binding to Lys63-polyUb over Lys48-polyUb.
Figure 5: HR23A-UBA1 is a Lys48-selective UBA domain.
Figure 6: Oligomeric UBA proteins may achieve Lys63 selectivity through linkage-specific avidity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Cole (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) for materials and advice for fluorescent labeling by expressed protein ligation. Work in this study was supported in part by the US National Istitutes of Health (NIH) grant GM065334 (to D.F.) and NIH Roadmap grant RR020839.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Joshua J Sims & Robert E Cohen

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Center for Biomolecular Structure and Organization, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Aydin Haririnia, Bryan C Dickinson & David Fushman

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Robert E Cohen

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  1. Joshua J Sims
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  2. Aydin Haririnia
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Contributions

J.J.S. and R.E.C. conceived of the study; J.J.S., D.F. and R.E.C. designed the experiments; J.J.S., R.E.C., A.H. and B.C.D. prepared the proteins; J.J.S. performed all the cloning and binding assays, and interpreted the data with R.E.C.; A.H. and B.C.D. performed the NMR experiments and analyzed the data with D.F.; J.J.S., D.F. and R.E.C. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Robert E Cohen.

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Sims, J., Haririnia, A., Dickinson, B. et al. Avid interactions underlie the Lys63-linked polyubiquitin binding specificities observed for UBA domains. Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 883–889 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1637

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