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Degrons of yeast and mammalian ornithine decarboxylase enzymes make potent combination for regulated targeted protein degradation

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Abstract

Elevation of polyamine levels in eukaryotes leads to rapid degradation of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the first enzyme of polyamine biosynthesis pathway. ODC in yeast (yODC) has two domains, the Nα/β domain consisting of α/β barrel domain (α/β) preceded by an overhang of 50 residues at its N-terminus (N50) and β sheet domain at its C-terminus. Two degradation determinant signals or degrons in yODC sequence, namely the N50 and the antizyme-binding element (AzBE) housed in the α/β domain, are responsible for its degradation by proteasomes. Antizyme (Az) induced under polyamine excess binds to AzBE and delivers ODC to proteasome, while the N50 threads the protein into proteasome. It was previously reported by us that the peptide Nα/β of yODC acts as an independent transplantable degron, whose action can be modulated with the help of antizyme by varying polyamine levels. Mammalian ODC (mODC), in spite of its 40% sequence homology with yODC, is devoid of N50 of yODC and instead sports a C-terminal tail of 37 residues (CmODC). CmODC acts as an independent transplantable degron with no equivalent in yODC. The present study investigates the merits of employing the two degrons Nα/β and CmODC together for targeted protein degradation by expressing them in a chimeric fusion with green fluorescent protein (GFP). Our results establish that under the regulation of antizyme, the signals Nα/β and CmODC acting together enhance degradation better than either degron in isolation. The combination of Nα/β and CmODC can be employed to study the function of novel proteins through their rapid removal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a major research project grant (No. BT/PR939/BRB/10/553/2007) awarded to C. Ratna Prabha from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. We thank P. Coffino, University of California, for providing us with genes for yeast and mammalian ornithine decarboxylase enzymes; Herbert Tabor, National Institutes of Health for Y05034 and Y651 strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae; and Jeffrey Gerst, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, for the plasmids pUG35 and pUG46. We thank the DBT-ILSPARE programme of the M. S. University of Baroda, India, for extending us the flow cytometry facility.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, 390002, India

    Rushikesh G. Joshi & C. Ratna Prabha

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  1. Rushikesh G. Joshi
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Correspondence to C. Ratna Prabha.

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This study was funded by a major research project grant (No. BT/PR939/BRB/10/553/2007) awarded to C. Ratna Prabha from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

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Joshi, R.G., Ratna Prabha, C. Degrons of yeast and mammalian ornithine decarboxylase enzymes make potent combination for regulated targeted protein degradation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 2905–2917 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-8023-5

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