In Vivo Protein Lifetime Measurements Across Multiple Organs in the Zebrafish

Protein production and degradation are tightly regulated to prevent cellular structures from accumulating damage and to allow their correct functioning. A key aspect of this regulation is the protein half-life, corresponding to the time in which half of a specific protein population is exchanged with respect to its initial state. Proteome-wide techniques to investigate protein half-lives in vivo are emerging. Recently, we have established and thoroughly tested a metabolic labeling approach using C-13 lysine (Lys(6)) for measuring protein lifetimes in mice. The approach is based on the fact that different proteins will incorporate a metabolic label at a rate that is dependent on their half-life. Using amino acid pool modeling and mass spectrometry, it is possible to measure the fraction of newly synthesized proteins and determine protein half-lives. In this chapter, we show how to extend this approach to zebrafish (Danio rerio), using a commercially available fish diet based on the stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) technology. We describe the methods for labeling animals and subsequently use mass spectrometry to determine the lifetimes of a large number of proteins. In the mass spectrometry workflow proposed here, we have implemented the BoxCar data acquisition approach for increasing sample coverage and optimize machine use. To establish the proteome library used in the BoxCar approach, we recommend performing an in-solution digestion followed by peptide fractionation through basic reversed-phase chromatography. Overall, this chapter extends the use of current proteome technologies for the quantification of protein turnover to zebrafish and similar organisms and permits the study of germline changes following specific manipulations

The codon sequences predict protein lifetimes and other parameters of the protein life cycle in the mouse brain

The homeostasis of the proteome depends on the tight regulation of the mRNA and protein abundances, of the translation rates, and of the protein lifetimes. Results from several studies on prokaryotes or eukaryotic cell cultures have suggested that protein homeostasis is connected to, and perhaps regulated by, the protein and the codon sequences. However, this has been little investigated for mammals in vivo. Moreover, the link between the coding sequences and one critical parameter, the protein lifetime, has remained largely unexplored, both in vivo and in vitro. We tested this in the mouse brain, and found that the percentages of amino acids and codons in the sequences could predict all of the homeostasis parameters with a precision approaching experimental measurements. A key predictive element was the wobble nucleotide. G-/C-ending codons correlated with higher protein lifetimes, protein abundances, mRNA abundances and translation rates than A-/U-ending codons. Modifying the proportions of G-/C-ending codons could tune these parameters in cell cultures, in a proof-of-principle experiment. We suggest that the coding sequences are strongly linked to protein homeostasis in vivo, albeit it still remains to be determined whether this relation is causal in nature.peerReviewe

Inhibition of CPAP-tubulin interaction prevents proliferation of centrosome-amplified cancer cells

Centrosome amplification is a hallmark of human cancers that can trigger cancer cell invasion. To survive, cancer cells cluster amplified extra centrosomes and achieve pseudobipolar division. Here, we set out to prevent clustering of extra centrosomes. Tubulin, by interacting with the centrosomal protein CPAP, negatively regulates CPAP-dependent peri-centriolar material recruitment, and concurrently microtubule nucleation. Screening for compounds that perturb CPAP-tubulin interaction led to the identification of CCB02, which selectively binds at the CPAP binding site of tubulin. Genetic and chemical perturbation of CPAP-tubulin interaction activates extra centrosomes to nucleate enhanced numbers of microtubules prior to mitosis. This causes cells to undergo centrosome de-clustering, prolonged multipolar mitosis, and cell death. 3D-organotypic invasion assays reveal that CCB02 has broad anti-invasive activity in various cancer models, including tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancers. Thus, we have identified a vulnerability of cancer cells to activation of extra centrosomes, which may serve as a global approach to target various tumors, including drug-resistant cancers exhibiting high incidence of centrosome amplification