Significance: Whereas the role of the ubiquitin system in protein degradation is well established, little is known regarding the regulation of its own components, including its catalytic arm, the 26S proteasome. Here we show that in stressed mammalian cells, the proteasome is targeted by autophagy, which requires site-specific ubiquitination of its ubiquitin receptors. The process is mediated by the p62/SQSTM1 adapter and requires its ubiquitin-associated domain. Independently, p62 serves also as a shuttling protein for ubiquitinated substrates, using its PB1 domain. This places p62 in a pivotal position where under certain conditions it binds to the proteasome as a protease, whereas in other conditions it recognizes the proteasome as a prey. The regulation of this intricate “decision making” process remains elusive.

In eukaryotic cells, intracellular protein breakdown is mainly performed by the ubiquitin–proteasome system. Proteasomes are supramolecular protein complexes formed by the association of multiple sub‐complexes and interacting proteins. Therefore, they exhibit a very high heterogeneity whose function is still not well understood. Here, using a newly developed method based on the combination of affinity purification and protein correlation profiling associated with high‐resolution mass spectrometry, we comprehensively characterized proteasome heterogeneity and identified previously unknown preferential associations within proteasome sub‐complexes. In particular, we showed for the first time that the two main proteasome subtypes, standard proteasome and immunoproteasome, interact with a different subset of important regulators. This trend was observed in very diverse human cell types and was confirmed by changing the relative proportions of both 20S proteasome forms using interferon‐γ. The new method developed here constitutes an innovative and powerful strategy that could be broadly applied for unraveling the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of other biologically relevant supramolecular protein complexes.

Through protein degradation, the proteasome plays fundamental roles in different cell compartments. Although the composition of the 20S catalytic core particle (CP) has been well documented, little is known about the composition and dynamics of the regulatory complexes that play a crucial role in its activity, or about how they associate with the CP in different cell compartments, different cell lines, and in response to external stimuli. Because of difficulties performing acceptable cell fractionation while maintaining complex integrity, it has been challenging to characterize proteasome complexes by proteomic approaches. Here, we report an integrated protocol, combining a cross-linking procedure on intact cells with cell fractionation, proteasome immuno-purification, and robust label-free quantitative proteomic analysis by mass spectrometry to determine the distribution and dynamics of cellular proteasome complexes in leukemic cells. Activity profiles of proteasomes were correlated fully with the composition of protein complexes and stoichiometry. Moreover, our results suggest that, at the subcellular level, proteasome function is regulated by dynamic interactions between the 20S CP and its regulatory proteins—which modulate proteasome activity, stability, localization, or substrate uptake—rather than by profound changes in 20S CP composition. Proteasome plasticity was observed both in the 20S CP and in its network of interactions following IFNγ stimulation. The fractionation protocol also revealed specific proteolytic activities and structural features of low-abundance microsomal proteasomes from U937 and KG1a cells. These could be linked to their important roles in the endoplasmic reticulum associated degradation pathway in leukemic cells.

Ethylene, the plant ripening hormone of climacteric fruit, is perceived by ethylene receptors which is the first step in the complex ethylene signal transduction pathway. Much progress has been made in elucidating the mechanism of this pathway, but there is still a lot to be done in the proteomic quantification of the main proteins involved, particularly during fruit ripening. This work focuses on the mass spectrometry based identification and quantification of the ethylene receptors (ETRs) and the downstream components of the pathway, CTR-like proteins (CTRs) and ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 2 (EIN2). We used tomato as a model fruit to study changes in protein abundance involved in the ethylene signal transduction during fruit ripening. In order to detect and quantify these low abundant proteins located in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum, we developed a workflow comprising sample fractionation and MS analysis using parallel reaction monitoring. This work shows the feasibility of the identification and absolute quantification of all seven ethylene receptors, three out of four CTRs and EIN2 in four ripening stages of tomato. In parallel, gene expression was analysed through real-time qPCR. Correlation between transcriptomic and proteomic profiles during ripening was only observed for three of the studied proteins, suggesting that the other signalling proteins are likely post-transcriptionally regulated. Based on our quantification results we were able to show that the protein levels of SlETR3 and SlETR4 increased during ripening, probably to control ethylene sensitivity. The other receptors and CTRs showed either stable levels that could sustain, or decreasing levels that could promote fruit ripening.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains incurable, largely due to its resistance to conventional treatments. Here, we find that increased abundance of the ubiquitin ligase RNF5 contributes to AML development and survival. High RNF5 expression in AML patient specimens correlates with poor prognosis. RNF5 inhibition decreases AML cell growth in culture, in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) samples and in vivo, and delays development of MLL-AF9–driven leukemogenesis in mice, prolonging their survival. RNF5 inhibition causes transcriptional changes that overlap with those seen upon histone deacetylase (HDAC)1 inhibition. RNF5 induces the formation of K29 ubiquitin chains on the histone-binding protein RBBP4, promoting its recruitment to and subsequent epigenetic regulation of genes involved in AML maintenance. Correspondingly, RNF5 or RBBP4 knockdown enhances AML cell sensitivity to HDAC inhibitors. Notably, low expression of both RNF5 and HDAC coincides with a favorable prognosis. Our studies identify an ERAD-independent role for RNF5, demonstrating that its control of RBBP4 constitutes an epigenetic pathway that drives AML, and highlight RNF5/RBBP4 as markers useful to stratify patients for treatment with HDAC inhibitors.