Identifying the substrate proteins of U-box E3s E4B and CHIP by orthogonal ubiquitin transfer.

E3 ubiquitin (UB) ligases E4B and carboxyl terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP) use a common U-box motif to transfer UB from E1 and E2 enzymes to their substrate proteins and regulate diverse cellular processes. To profile their ubiquitination targets in the cell, we used phage display to engineer E2-E4B and E2-CHIP pairs that were free of cross-reactivity with the native UB transfer cascades. We then used the engineered E2-E3 pairs to construct "orthogonal UB transfer (OUT)" cascades so that a mutant UB (xUB) could be exclusively used by the engineered E4B or CHIP to label their substrate proteins.

Identifying the ubiquitination targets of E6AP by orthogonal ubiquitin transfer.

E3 ubiquitin (UB) ligases are the ending modules of the E1-E2-E3 cascades that transfer UB to cellular proteins and regulate their biological functions. Identifying the substrates of an E3 holds the key to elucidate its role in cell regulation. Here, we construct an orthogonal UB transfer (OUT) cascade to identify the substrates of E6AP, a HECT E3 also known as Ube3a that is implicated in cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Orthogonal ubiquitin transfer identifies ubiquitination substrates under differential control by the two ubiquitin activating enzymes.

Protein ubiquitination is mediated sequentially by ubiquitin activating enzyme E1, ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 and ubiquitin ligase E3. Uba1 was thought to be the only E1 until the recent identification of Uba6. To differentiate the biological functions of Uba1 and Uba6, we applied an orthogonal ubiquitin transfer (OUT) technology to profile their ubiquitination targets in mammalian cells.

Coupling Binding to Catalysis: Using Yeast Cell Surface Display to Select Enzymatic Activities.

We find yeast cell surface display can be used to engineer enzymes by selecting the enzyme library for high affinity binding to reaction intermediates. Here we cover key steps of enzyme engineering on the yeast cell surface including library design, construction, and selection based on magnetic and fluorescence-activated cell sorting.

Phage selection assisted by Sfp phosphopantetheinyl transferase-catalyzed site-specific protein labeling.

Phosphopantetheinyl transferases (PPTase) Sfp and AcpS catalyze a highly efficient reaction that conjugates chemical probes of diverse structures to proteins. PPTases have been widely used for site-specific protein labeling and live cell imaging of the target proteins. Here we describe the use of PPTase-catalyzed protein labeling in protein engineering by facilitating high-throughput phage selection.