Biology subjects

Sauve, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Sauve, V..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Understanding the Pathogenicity of Parkin Catalytic Domain Mutants

Mutations in the E3 ubiquitin ligase parkin cause a familial form of Parkinsons disease (PD). Parkin and the mitochondrial kinase PINK1 assure quality control of mitochondria through selective autophagy of mitochondria (mitophagy). Whereas numerous parkin mutations have been functionally characterized and their structural basis revealed, several pathogenic PD mutations found in the catalytic RING2 domain remain poorly understood. Here, we characterize two pathogenic RING2 mutants, T415N and P437L and shed light on the underlying structural causes. For this purpose, we use biochemical in vitro assays in combination with AlphaFold modeling. We demonstrate that both mutants exhibit impaired activity using autoubiquitination and ubiquitin vinyl sulfone assays. After determining the parkin minimal ubiquitin binding region, we show that both mutants display impaired binding to the ubiquitin molecule charged onto the E2 enzyme. Finally, we employ the most recent version of AlphaFold 3 to generate a structural model of the phospho-parkin/phospho-ubiquitin/ubiquitin-charged E2 complex. This model consolidates our findings and provides a structural understanding for the pathogenicity of these two parkin variants. A better understanding of the different PD mutations at the molecular level can pave the way for personalized treatments and the design of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of PD.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2021

Selective localization of Mfn2 near PINK1 enable its preferential ubiquitination by Parkin on mitochondria

Mutations in Parkin and PINK1 cause an early-onset familial Parkinsons disease. Parkin is a RING-In-Between-RING (RBR) E3 ligase that transfers ubiquitin from an E2 enzyme to a substrate in two steps: 1) thioester intermediate formation on Parkin, and 2) acyl transfer to a substrate lysine. The process is triggered by PINK1, which phosphorylates ubiquitin on damaged mitochondria, which in turn recruits and activates Parkin. This leads to the ubiquitination of outer mitochondrial membrane proteins and clearance of the organelle. While the targets of Parkin on mitochondria are known, the factors determining substrate selectivity remain unclear. To investigate this, we examined how Parkin catalyzes ubiquitin transfer to substrates. We found that His433 in the RING2 domain catalyzes acyl transfer. In cells, mutation of His433 impairs mitophagy. In vitro ubiquitination assays with isolated mitochondria show that Mfn2 is a kinetically preferred substrate. Using proximity-ligation assays, we show that Mfn2 specifically co-localizes with PINK1 and phospho-ubiquitin in U2OS cells upon mitochondrial depolarization. We propose a model whereby ubiquitination of Mfn2 is efficient by virtue of its localization near PINK1, which leads to the recruitment and activation of Parkin via phospho-ubiquitin at these sites.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2021

Structural basis for feedforward control in the PINK1/parkin pathway

PINK1 and parkin constitute a mitochondrial quality control system mutated in Parkinsons disease. PINK1, a kinase, phosphorylates ubiquitin to recruit parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, to mitochondria. PINK1 controls both parkin localization and activity through phosphorylation of both ubiquitin and the ubiquitin-like (Ubl) domain of parkin. Here, we observe that phospho-ubiquitin can bind to two distinct sites on parkin, a high affinity site on RING1 that controls parkin localization, and a low affinity site on RING0 that releases parkin autoinhibition. Surprisingly, NMR titrations and ubiquitin vinyl sulfone assays show that the RING0 site has higher affinity for phospho-ubiquitin than the phosphorylated Ubl. Parkin could be activated by micromolar concentrations of tetra-phospho-ubiquitin chains that mimic a mitochondrion bearing multiple phosphorylated ubiquitins. A chimeric form of parkin with the Ubl domain replaced by ubiquitin was readily activated by PINK1 phosphorylation. In all cases, mutation of the binding site on RING0 abolished parkin activation. The feedforward mechanism of parkin activation confers robustness and rapidity to the PINK1-parkin pathway and likely represents an intermediate step in its evolutionary development.

biochemistry↗