Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2020 Jan 13;15(1):e0227642. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227642. eCollection 2020.
Homeotic selector (HOX) transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression that determines the identity of Drosophila segments along the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis. The current challenge with HOX proteins is understanding how they achieve their functional specificity while sharing a highly conserved homeodomain (HD) that recognize the same DNA binding sites. One mechanism proposed to regulate HOX activity is differential post-translational modification (PTM). As a first step in investigating this hypothesis, the sites of PTM on a Sex combs reduced protein fused to a triple tag (SCRTT) extracted from developing embryos were identified by Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS). The PTMs identified include phosphorylation at S185, S201, T315, S316, T317 and T324, acetylation at K218, S223, S227, K309, K434 and K439, formylation at K218, K309, K325, K341, K369, K434 and K439, methylation at S19, S166, K168 and T364, carboxylation at D108, K298, W307, K309, E323, K325 and K369, and hydroxylation at P22, Y87, P107, D108, D111, P269, P306, R310, N321, K325, Y334, R366, P392 and Y398. Of the 44 modifications, 18 map to functionally important regions of SCR. Besides a highly conserved DNA-binding HD, HOX proteins also have functionally important, evolutionarily conserved small motifs, which may be Short Linear Motifs (SLiMs). SLiMs are proposed to be preferential sites of phosphorylation. Although 6 of 7 phosphosites map to regions of predicted SLiMs, we find no support for the hypothesis that the individual S, T and Y residues of predicted SLiMs are phosphorylated more frequently than S, T and Y residues outside of predicted SLiMs.
同源异形选择(HOX)转录因子(TFs)调节基因表达,决定果蝇沿前后(A-P)轴的节段身份。目前,HOX 蛋白的挑战是了解它们如何在共享高度保守的同源域(HD)的同时实现其功能特异性,该同源域识别相同的 DNA 结合位点。一种被提议调节 HOX 活性的机制是差异翻译后修饰(PTM)。作为研究这一假设的第一步,通过串联质谱(MS/MS)鉴定了从发育胚胎中提取的 Sex comb 减少蛋白融合的三重标签(SCRTT)上 PTM 的位点。鉴定的 PTM 包括 S185、S201、T315、S316、T317 和 T324 的磷酸化、K218、S223、S227、K309、K434 和 K439 的乙酰化、K218、K309、K325、K341、K369、K434 和 K439 的甲酰化、S19、S166、K168 和 T364 的甲基化、D108、K298、W307、K309、E323、K325 和 K369 的羧化、P22、Y87、P107、D108、D111、P269、P306、R310、N321、K325、Y334、R366、P392 和 Y398 的羟化。在这 44 种修饰中,有 18 种映射到 SCR 的功能重要区域。除了高度保守的 DNA 结合 HD 外,HOX 蛋白还具有功能重要的、进化上保守的小基序,这些小基序可能是短线性基序(SLiMs)。SLiMs 被提议是磷酸化的优先位点。尽管 7 个磷酸化位点中有 6 个映射到预测的 SLiMs 区域,但我们没有发现支持以下假设的证据,即预测的 SLiMs 中的单个 S、T 和 Y 残基比预测的 SLiMs 之外的 S、T 和 Y 残基更频繁地磷酸化。