N-Terminal Acetylation of Cellular Proteins Creates Specific Degradation Signals

Cheol-Sang Hwang, Anna Shemorry, Alexander Varshavsky^*

Abstract: The retained N-terminal methionine (Met) residue of a nascent protein is often N-terminally acetylated (Nt-acetylated). Removal of N-terminal Met by Met-aminopeptidases frequently leads to Nt-acetylation of the resulting N-terminal alanine (Ala), valine (Val), serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), and cysteine (Cys) residues. Although a majority of eukaryotic proteins (for example, more than 80% of human proteins) are cotranslationally Nt-acetylated, the function of this extensively studied modification is largely unknown. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we found that the Nt-acetylated Met residue could act as a degradation signal (degron), targeted by the Doa10 ubiquitin ligase. Moreover, Doa10 also recognized the Nt-acetylated Ala, Val, Ser, Thr, and Cys residues. Several examined proteins of diverse functions contained these N-terminal degrons, termed ^AcN-degrons, which are a prevalent class of degradation signals in cellular proteins.

Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: avarsh{at}caltech.edu

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