Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder resulting from loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra, in part due to mitochondrial dysfunction. The E3 ubiquitin ligase, PARKIN, and mitochondrial kinase, PINK1, found mutated in familial early onset recessive forms of PD play central roles in mitochondrial homeostasis, thus maintaining control of a diversity of cellular processes, including energy metabolism, calcium buffering, and cell death. Together, PARKIN and PINK1 control mitochondrial homeostasis via a signaling cascade in which depolarization-induced PINK1 stabilization and activation on the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) promotes recruitment of PARKIN. Consequently, the outer mitochondrial membrane is extensively decorated with ubiquitin, ultimately resulting in removal of the damaged organelles via mitophagy, the selective autophagic removal of mitochondria. While PARKIN has been demonstrated to ubiquitylate Porin, Mitofusin, and Miro proteins on the MOM, the full repertoire of PARKIN substrates - the PARKIN-dependent ubiquitylome - remains poorly defined. Here, large-scale quantitative diGlycine (diGly) capture proteomics was used to identify PARKIN-dependent ubiquitylation on lysine residues in proteins modified upon mitochondrial depolarization. Hundreds of ubiquitylation sites in dozens of proteins were identified, with strong enrichment for MOM proteins, indicating that PARKIN activity has the capacity to dramatically alter the ubiquitylation status of the mitochondrial proteome. Complementary interaction proteomics identified physical association of PARKIN with a cohort of MOM ubiquitylation targets, autophagy receptors, and the proteasome, interactions which were completely dependent upon mitochondrial damage and drastically reduced upon mutation of the active site residue, C431, found mutated in PD patients. Furthermore, structural and evolutionary analysis of PARKIN-dependent ubiquitylation events revealed extensive conservation of target sites on cytoplasmic domains in vertebrate and D. melanogaster MOM proteins. Parallel PINK1 interaction proteomics identified numerous subunits of the translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOMM) and a novel interactor, CLU1, shown to regulate mitochondrial morphology in lower eukaryotes. Positive genetic interaction between CLU1, PINK1, and PARKIN suggests the potential of a newly identified node of regulation for the PINK1/PARKIN pathway. These studies define how PARKIN and PINK1 re-sculpt the proteome to support mitochondrial homeostasis, ultimately contributing toward an improved understanding of their role in the progression of disease.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Lafora disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in either the EPM2A or the EPM2B gene that encode a glycogen phosphatase, laforin and an E3 ubiquitin ligase, malin, respectively. A hallmark of the disease is accumulation of insoluble, poorly branched, hyperphosphorylated glycogen in brain, muscle and heart. The laforin-malin complex has been proposed to play a role in the regulation of glycogen metabolism and protein degradation/quality control. We evaluated three arms of protein quality control (the autophagolysosomal pathway, the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway, and ER stress response) in embryonic fibroblasts from Epm2a-/-, Epm2b-/- and Epm2a-/- Epm2b-/- mice. There was an mTOR-dependent impairment in autophagy, decreased proteasomal activity but an uncompromised ER stress response in the knockout cells. These defects may be secondary to the glycogen overaccumulation. The absence of malin, but not laforin, decreased the level of LAMP1, a marker of lysosomes, suggesting a malin function independent of laforin, possibly in lysosomal biogenesis and/or lysosomal glycogen disposal. To understand the physiological role of malin, an unbiased diGly proteomics approach was developed to search for malin substrates. Ubiquitin forms an isopeptide bond with lysine of the protein upon ubiquitination. Proteolysis by trypsin cleaves the C-terminal Arg-Gly-Gly residues in ubiquitin and yields a diGly remnant on the peptides. These diGly peptides were immunoaffinity purified using anti-diGly antibody and then analyzed by mass spectrometry. The mouse skeletal muscle ubiquitylome was studied using diGly proteomics and we identified 244 nonredundant ubiquitination sites in 142 proteins. An approach for differential dimethyl labeling of proteins with diGly immunoaffinity purification was also developed. diGly peptides from skeletal muscle of wild type and Epm2b-/- mice were immunoaffinity purified followed by differential dimethyl labeling and analyzed by mass spectrometry. About 70 proteins were identified that were present in the wild type and absent in the Epm2b-/- muscle tissue. The initial results identified 14 proteins as potential malin substrates, which would need validation in future studies.