Protein aggregates play crucial roles
in the development of neurodegenerative
diseases and p62 is one of the key proteins regulating the formation
of protein aggregates. Recently, it has been discovered that depletion
of several key enzymes including UFM1-activating enzyme UBA5, UFM1-conjugating
enzyme UFC1, UFM1-protein ligase UFL1, and UFM1-specific protease
UfSP2 in the UFM1-conjugation system induces p62 accumulation to form
p62 bodies in the cytosol. However, it is unknown whether UfSP1 participates
in the formation of p62 bodies and whether its enzymatic activity
is required for this process. Here, the proximity labeling technique
and quantitative proteomics identify SQSTM1/p62 as a UfSP1-interacting
protein. Coimmunoprecipitation reveals that p62 indeed interacts with
UfSP1 and the immunofluorescence experiment discloses that UfSP1 colocalizes
with p62 and promotes the formation of p62-mediated protein aggregates.
Mechanistic studies unveil that UfSP1 binds to the ubiquitin-associated
domain of p62 and promotes the interaction between p62 and ubiquitinated
proteins, thereby increasing the formation of p62 bodies. Interestingly,
we further demonstrate that both the catalytic active and inactive
UfSP1 promote the formation of p62 bodies through the same mechanism.
Taken together, this work discovers that UfSP1 exhibits a noncanonical
function independent of its protease activity in the p62 body formation.