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POST-TRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS

Catch your breath

Nature Chemical Biology volume 18, pages 686–687 (2022)Cite this article

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a product of cellular respiration that can also serve as a post-translational modification (PTM) through covalent protein modification. A new chemoproteomic strategy enables the capture of functional CO2-dependent carboxylation on lysine residues of proteins.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is key for life. Plants need it for photosynthesis, on which most living organisms depend for basic nutrition. We produce it with every breath we take. Although the roles of CO2 in metabolism and respiration are well established, how cells sense and respond to changes in available CO2 levels have remained enigmatic. This topic is timely given the increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and the resulting impact on Earth’s ecosystem. Concentrations of CO2 or bicarbonate (HCO3–) — a product of reversible hydration of CO2 — are known to affect physiology, but the underlying biochemical mechanisms remain poorly defined. To investigate these questions, in this issue of Nature Chemical Biology, King et al.1 introduce a chemoproteomic strategy to detect CO2-dependent lysine carboxylation on proteins, which they apply to the study of a CO2 sensing and signaling mechanism in cyanobacteria.

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Fig. 1: Homocitrullination enables chemoproteomic identification of CO2-reactive lysines through competitive labeling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    R. Justin Grams & Ku-Lung Hsu

  2. Department of Pharmacology, , University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Ku-Lung Hsu

  3. Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Ku-Lung Hsu

  4. University of Virginia Cancer Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Ku-Lung Hsu

Authors
  1. R. Justin Grams
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  2. Ku-Lung Hsu
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Correspondence to Ku-Lung Hsu.

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Grams, R.J., Hsu, KL. Catch your breath. Nat Chem Biol 18, 686–687 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-022-01063-x

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