The ubiquitin-like modifi er FAT10 targets proteins for degradation by the proteasome and is activated by the E1 enzyme UBA6. In this study, we identify the UBA6-specifi c E2 enzyme (USE1) as an interaction partner of FAT10. Activated FAT10 can be transferred from UBA6 onto USE1 in vitro , and endogenous USE1 and FAT10 can be coimmunoprecipitated from intact cells. Small interfering RNA-mediated downregulation of USE1 mRNA resulted in a strong reduction of FAT10 conjugate formation under endogenous conditions, suggesting that USE1 is a major E2 enzyme in the FAT10 conjugation cascade. Interestingly, USE1 is not only the fi rst E2 enzyme but also the fi rst known substrate of FAT10 conjugation, as it was effi ciently auto-FAT10ylated in cis but not in trans .

The mRNA of the ubiquitin-like modifier FAT10 has been reported to be overexpressed in 90% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and in over 80% of colon, ovary and uterus carcinomas. Elevated FAT10 expression in malignancies was attributed to transcriptional upregulation upon the loss of p53. Moreover, FAT10 induced chromosome instability in long-term in vitro culture, which led to the hypothesis that FAT10 might be involved in carcinogenesis. In this study we show that interferon (IFN)-c and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a synergistically upregulated FAT10 expression in liver and colon cancer cells 10-to 100-fold. Real-time RT-PCR revealed that FAT10 mRNA was significantly overexpressed in 37 of 51 (72%) of human HCC samples and in 8 of 15 (53%) of human colon carcinomas. The FAT10 cDNA sequences in HCC samples were not mutated and intact FAT10 protein was detectable. FAT10 expression in both cancer tissues correlated with expression of the IFN-c-and TNF-adependent proteasome subunit LMP2 strongly suggesting that proinflammatory cytokines caused the joint overexpression of FAT10 and LMP2. NIH3T3 transformation assays revealed that FAT10 had no transforming capability. Taken together, FAT10 qualifies as a marker for an interferon response in HCC and colon carcinoma but is not significantly overexpressed in cancers lacking a proinflammatory environment.

Progression through the stages of lymphocyte development requires coordination of the cell cycle. Such coordination ensures genomic integrity while cells somatically rearrange their antigen receptor genes [in a process called variable-diversity-joining (VDJ) recombination] and, upon successful rearrangement, expands the pools of progenitor lymphocytes. Here we show that in developing B lymphocytes, the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) ZFP36L1 and ZFP36L2 are critical for maintaining quiescence before precursor B cell receptor (pre-BCR) expression and for reestablishing quiescence after pre-BCR-induced expansion. These RBPs suppress an evolutionarily conserved posttranscriptional regulon consisting of messenger RNAs whose protein products cooperatively promote transition into the S phase of the cell cycle. This mechanism promotes VDJ recombination and effective selection of cells expressing immunoglobulin-μ at the pre-BCR checkpoint.

Proteins selected for degradation are labeled with multiple molecules of ubiquitin and are subsequently cleaved by the 26 S proteasome. A family of proteins containing at least one ubiquitinassociated (UBA) domain and one ubiquitin-like (UBL) domain have been shown to act as soluble ubiquitin receptors of the 26 S proteasome and introduce a new level of specificity into the degradation system. They bind ubiquitylated proteins via their UBA domains and the 26 S proteasome via their UBL domain and facilitate the contact between substrate and protease. NEDD8 ultimate buster-1 long (NUB1L) belongs to this class of proteins and contains one UBL and three UBA domains. We recently reported that NUB1L interacts with the ubiquitin-like modifier FAT10 and accelerates its degradation and that of its conjugates. Here we show that a deletion mutant of NUB1L lacking the UBL domain is still able to bind FAT10 but not the proteasome and no longer accelerates FAT10 degradation. A version of NUB1L lacking all three UBA domains, on the other hand, looses the ability to bind FAT10 but is still able to interact with the proteasome and accelerates the degradation of FAT10. The degradation of a FAT10 mutant containing only the C-terminal UBL domain is also still accelerated by NUB1L, even though the two proteins do not interact. In addition, we show that FAT10 and either one of its UBL domains alone can interact directly with the 26 S proteasome. We propose that NUB1L not only acts as a linker between the 26 S proteasome and ubiquitinlike proteins, but also as a facilitator of proteasomal degradation.Ubiquitin, a small protein of 76 amino acids is one of the most conserved proteins known and has been found in all eukaryotic cells studied. It is essential for a variety of cellular processes, including degradation, cell-cycle regulation, DNA repair, stress response, embryogenesis, apoptosis, signal transduction, and transmembrane and vesicular transport (1-6). Throughout the past years, a family of proteins containing structural motives related to ubiquitin has been described that can be grouped into the ubiquitin-like modifiers and the ubiquitin-domain proteins (7). The ubiquitin-like modifiers have substantial sequence or structural homology to ubiquitin and form covalent conjugates with their target proteins. However, unlike ubiquitin, which can form large polymeric conjugates, usually only monomeric modifications are observed. As is the case for ubiquitin, a C-terminal diglycine motif is essential for conjugation of most modifiers to their target proteins (8). Prominent members of this group include SUMO-1, which serves several functions including nuclear transport and budding (9, 10), NEDD8, which regulates SCF ubiquitin-ligases via cullin modification (11), ISG15, which plays a role in innate immunity and in the response to ␣-interferon (12, 13), and FAT10, which is inducible with ␥-interferon (IFN)-␥ 4 and tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF-␣) (14, 15), and has been shown to cause apoptosis upon ectopic expression (16).The ubiquitin-li...

Influenza virus outbreaks remain a serious threat to public health. A greater understanding of how cells targeted by the virus respond to the infection can provide insight into the pathogenesis of disease. Here we examined the transcriptional profile of -infected and uninfected type 2 alveolar epithelial cells (AEC) in the lungs of influenza virus-infected mice. We show for the first time the unique gene expression profiles induced by the infection of AEC as well as the transcriptional response of uninfected bystander cells. This work allows us to distinguish the direct and indirect effects of infection at the cellular level. Transcriptome analysis revealed that although directly infected and bystander AEC from infected animals shared many transcriptome changes compared to AEC from uninfected animals, directly infected cells produce more interferon and express lower levels of Wnt signaling-associated transcripts, while concurrently expressing more transcripts associated with cell death pathways, than bystander uninfected AEC. The Wnt signaling pathway was downregulated in both -infected AEC and-infected human lung epithelial A549 cells. Wnt signaling did not affect type I and III interferon production by infected A549 cells. Our results reveal unique transcriptional changes that occur within infected AEC and show that influenza virus downregulates Wnt signaling. In light of recent findings that Wnt signaling is essential for lung epithelial stem cells, our findings reveal a mechanism by which influenza virus may affect host lung repair. Influenza virus infection remains a major public health problem. Utilizing a recombinant green fluorescent protein-expressing influenza virus, we compared the transcriptomes of directly infected and uninfected bystander cells from infected mouse lungs and discovered many pathways uniquely regulated in each population. The Wnt signaling pathway was downregulated in directly infected cells and was shown to affect virus but not interferon production. Our study is the first to discern the transcriptome changes induced by direct viral infection compared to mere exposure to the lung inflammatory milieu and highlight the downregulation of Wnt signaling. This downregulation has important implications for understanding influenza virus pathogenesis, as Wnt signaling is critical for lung epithelial stem cells and lung epithelial cell differentiation. Our findings reveal a mechanism by which influenza virus may affect host lung repair and suggest interventions that prevent damage or accelerate recovery of the lung.