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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 13, 12162-12167, April 1, 2005
Human Ran Cysteine 112 Oxidation by Pervanadate Regulates Its Binding to Keratins*
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| ABSTRACT |
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cysteic acid oxidation and its related gel migration shift affects other proteins including actin. Mutation of the three Ran cysteines (Cys-85, -112, and -120) showed that Ran Cys-112 oxidation generates 27-kDa Ran and accounts for its keratin binding. Proteasome inhibition accentuates Ran-keratin binding after cell exposure to pervanadate. Therefore, cell-free exposure to pervanadate causes cysteine to cysteic acid oxidation of Ran and several other proteins and Ran-K8/K18 association. In cells, stabilization of oxidized Ran by proteasome inhibition promotes Ran-keratin interaction. Keratin sequestration of oxidized Ran may provide a back-up protective mechanism in some cases of oxidative injury. | INTRODUCTION |
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IF regulation and function are modulated in large part by phosphorylation and a relatively small number of characterized IF-associated proteins (46). Keratin phosphorylation occurs primarily on serine residues, but tyrosine phosphorylation of K8 and K19 was demonstrated when cells were cultured in the presence of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) inhibitor pervanadate (PV) (7). The use of Ser/Thr phosphatase inhibitors such as okadaic acid (OA) has been valuable in helping identify K8/K18 interaction with 14-3-3 proteins and Raf-1 kinase (8, 9). However, whether cell exposure to PV and consequent modulation of tyrosine phosphorylation could regulate keratin interaction with an associated protein is unknown.
Protein tyrosine phosphorylation is pivotal for regulating a variety of fundamental cellular processes (10, 11). The established PTP inhibitors vanadate and PV (vanadate mixed with H2O2 generate PV) are commonly used to study a broad range of biologic processes. PV is significantly more effective than vanadate in increasing cellular tyrosine phosphorylation (12, 13), and PV treatment of cells leads to tyrosine hyperphosphorylation of many proteins (1416). Although the precise details of the inhibitory effect of PV on phosphatases are not completely understood, PTP oxidation is a likely key mechanism as demonstrated for the irreversible inhibition of PTP1B by PV via oxidation of its catalytic cysteine residue (17).
Oxidative stress has been associated with several human degenerative disorders (1820), as supported by the accumulation of oxidized cellular proteins due to increased protein oxidation or/and reduced elimination of the modified proteins. For example, ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) is modified to cysteic acid in the brains of patients with Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, suggesting a link between oxidative damage of neuronal proteins and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases (21, 22). Also, DJ-1, the mutation of which causes autosomal recessive Parkinson disease (23), oxidizes its Cys-106 to cysteic acid upon the exposure of umbilical vein endothelial cells to H2O2 (24). Interestingly, DJ-1 Cys-106 plays an important neuroprotective role in the response to oxidative stress (25). Thus, oxidative injury and consequent cysteine to cysteic acid oxidation may be involved in the pathogenesis of several human disorders.
Ran is an abundant and highly conserved GTPase of the Ras superfamily and is essential for viability in every tested organism (26, 27). It shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm, plays an important role in nucleocytoplasm transport (28), and is implicated in several nuclear functions including transport, cell cycle control, and post-mitotic nuclear assembly (29, 30). We hypothesized that tyrosine phosphorylation may regulate keratin interaction with hitherto uncharacterized binding proteins and utilized PV treatment of cells as a handle to study such potential interactions. We show that PV induces K8/K18-Ran binding, which is associated with the slower migration of Ran on SDS-PAGE. These findings are not caused by tyrosine hyperphosphorylation but by oxidation of an exposed Ran cysteine residue. Our results suggest that the cytoprotective effects of keratins can be related, in part, to sequestration of damaged oxidized proteins during conditions when the proteasome system is overwhelmed or inhibited.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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subunit (G
) (Calbiochem). Other reagents included recombinant (r)-Ran (Calbiochem), pET protein expression system (Novagen), and QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). 32P-labeled
-ATP/GTP and
-GTP were purchased from PerkinElmer Life Sciences. Immunoprecipitation, Gel, and Protein AnalysisHT29 cells were treated with PV (1 mM, 90 min), OA (1 µg/ml, 2 h), anisomycin (An, 10 µg/ml, 20 h), or carrier (0.1% Me2SO for 20 h; used as solvent for OA/An). Cells were solubilized (2 h, 4 °C) with 1% Nonidet P-40 in buffer A (5 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 10 µM pepstatin, 10 µM leupeptin, and 25 µg/ml aprotinin in phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.4). Where indicated, 0.1 mM PV or 0.5 µg/ml OA were included during solubilization of PV- and OA-treated cells, respectively. After pelleting, the supernatants were used for immunoprecipitation (3 h, 4 °C) using anti-Ran Ab or anti-K8/K18 Ab conjugated to protein A-Sepharose beads. Precipitates were used for blotting or in vitro reconstitution binding assays. Total cell lysates were prepared by directly adding hot Laemmli sample buffer (90 °C, 5 min) to prewashed cells. Protein samples were separated by 12% SDS-PAGE (39) and then transferred to membranes for blotting.
Mass Spectrometry and Amino Acid CompositionKeratin-associated proteins were purified from PV-treated HT29 cells by K8/K18 co-immunoprecipitation. As a specificity control, precipitates were also prepared using protein A-Sepharose beads alone. After gel separation, trypsin was used for in-gel-digestion followed by peptide extraction and then identification of co-precipitated proteins by mass spectrometry-based methods (peptide mass mapping and de novo sequencing whenever necessary). For amino acid composition, acid hydrolysis of proteins was carried out in constantly boiling HCl followed by analysis with a Beckman System 6300 High Performance Analyzer.
Radiolabeling and Biochemical MethodsAliquots (100 µl) of soluble Nonidet P-40 fractions of HT29 cells were mixed with 50 µCi of [
-32P]ATP, [
-32P]GTP, or [
-32P]GTP and then incubated +/PV (0.1 mM, 60 min, 4 °C). Labeling was quenched by adding sample buffer (5 min, 95 °C) followed by SDS-PAGE, transfer to a membrane, autoradiography, and then anti-Ran blotting. Ran was purified by immunoprecipitation from HT29 cells that were cultured and solubilized (+PV) and then incubated with ±5 units of alkaline phosphatase (60 min, 37 °C). Inhibition of proteasomal degradation was done by culturing cells (8 h) with lactacystin (20 µM) or N-acetyl-L-leucinyl-L-leucinyl-Lnorleucinal (100 µM) or 0.1% Me2SO (as vehicle control). PV (1 mM) was added to cell culture media and incubated further for 1.5 h. Cells were washed and then solubilized with 1% Nonidet P-40 in buffer A (PV, 2 h, 4 °C) followed by precipitation of K8/K18.
Expression of Ran Mutants and Reconstitution Experimentsh-Ran cDNA was amplified from a pCMV-SPORT6-Ran vector followed by subcloning into pET23a (+) and then generation of four Ran mutants (C85F, C112F, C120A, and triple C85F,C112F,C120A mutant), which were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Ran was extracted from the bacteria using lysozyme and freeze-thawing. For the in vitro reconstitution assays, equal amounts of washed Sepharose-Ab-K8/K18 beads (30 µl) were mixed with 300 µl of bacterially expressed wild type (WT) or mutant Ran in buffer B containing 0.1 mM PV (4 °C, 16 h). The beads were washed, and bound proteins was eluted from the beads with Laemmli sample buffer and then analyzed by blotting.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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We then used several approaches to exclude cell-free in vitro phosphorylation or another enzymatic process as the cause of 27-kDa Ran formation. First, 27-kDa Ran is not affected by treatment with alkaline phosphatase (Fig. 2A). Second, incubation of a Nonidet P-40 lysate with various donor phosphates ([
-32P]ATP/GTP or [
-32P]GTP) in the presence or absence of PV does not generate a labeled Ran-like species although 27-kDa Ran is the primary formed species in the presence of PV (Fig. 2B, lanes 2, 4, and 6), whereas other in vitro phosphorylated proteins are generated (Fig. 2B, arrows). Third, formation of 27-kDa Ran was heat-insensitive (Fig. 2C) and occurs by simply mixing PV with r-Ran (Fig. 2D, compare lanes 5 and 6). Furthermore, association of Ran with K8/K18 can be reconstituted in vitro using r-Ran and K8/K18 immunoprecipitates but only in the presence of PV (Fig. 2D, lanes 14). Taken together, these results indicate that an enzymatic modification of Ran is unlikely to account for its binding to K8/K18 or formation of 27-kDa Ran.
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PV Induces Generalized Protein Cysteine Oxidation and SDS-PAGE Migration ShiftsWe tested the effect of PV on actin and G
. Actin was selected for this analysis because it is an abundant Cys-containing protein. G
was examined because it undergoes in vitro phosphorylation by [
-32P]GTP (32), and the in vitro labeling by [
-32P]GTP in the absence of PV (Fig. 2B, lane 3) highlighted a major species of 36 kDa (likely corresponding to G
) that was almost completely abolished with generation of a faint slower migrating species in the presence of PV (Fig. 2B, lane 4). Cell-free PV treatment of Nonidet P-40 lysates, isolated from HT29 cells, also slowed the SDS-PAGE migration of actin and G
(Fig. 3A) but did not affect the migration of two unknown species that cross-reacted with anti-G
Ab (Fig. 3A, arrows). Treatment of purified actin with PV followed by amino acid analysis confirmed that all five cysteines of actin become oxidized to cysteic acid (Supplemental Table 2). Thus, PV-induced protein oxidation on cysteine residues appears to be a generalized occurrence that affects several Cys-containing proteins.
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also binds to keratins. As shown in Fig. 3B, the oxidized form of G
(G
contains multiple cysteines) co-immunoprecipitates with K8/K18 when isolated from PV-treated cells and not from untreated cells. However, actin was not detected using similar K8/K18 immunoprecipitation conditions (not shown). This suggests that some but not all oxidized proteins can bind to keratins, which is likely related to the context of the oxidized epitope within the protein backbone. Oxidized Ran Is Rapidly Degraded in Vivo by the ProteasomeThe potentially deleterious effects of oxidation and generation of reactive oxygen species can be overcome by several cellular defense mechanisms including superoxide dismutase and catalase. However, oxidized proteins often loose their function and are potentially toxic if allowed to accumulate (33, 34). Oxidized proteins are susceptible to rapid degradation by the proteasome, which provides a likely protective mechanism to prevent cellular accumulation of potentially toxic damaged proteins (34). Thus, we tested whether proteasome inhibition helps to detect the 27-kDa Ran and its K8/K18 association in vivo. Oxidized Ran co-immunoprecipitated with K8/K18 when cells are cultured in the presence of PV and proteasome inhibitors but not in the presence of PV alone (Fig. 3C). This explains why PV-oxidized Ran is readily seen in cell-free systems (Fig. 1) but is difficult to detect in cells. Notably, calpain (PD150606) and lysosome (pepstatin/leupeptin) inhibitors had a minimal effect on 27-kDa Ran turnover (not shown). These findings are consistent with earlier studies that demonstrate accumulation of oxidized proteins and a concomitant decline in proteolytic activity with age (35, 36).
PV-induced Oxidation of Ran Cys-112 Accounts for Formation of 27-kDa Ran and Keratin-Ran AssociationWe hypothesized that oxidation of one or more of the Ran cysteines may account for generation of 27-kDa Ran and for Ran-keratin binding. To test this hypothesis, we generated individual or combined human Ran cysteine mutants and demonstrated their expression in Escherichia coli (Fig. 4, A and B). We then examined the effect of Cys mutation on the ability to form 27-kDa Ran and showed that mutation of the three Ran cysteines or of Ran Cys-112 alone ablated the altered Ran gel migration after exposure to PV, whereas the Ran Cys-85 or Cys-120 mutants had no effect (Fig. 4C). Similarly, reconstitution of Ran-keratin binding using WT or mutant bacterially expressed Ran showed that Cys-112 is the critical cysteine that, when oxidized to cysteic acid, causes Ran-keratin binding (Fig. 4D).
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and was likely to affect many other cys-containing proteins by converting cysteine to cysteic acid. This PV-induced oxidation resulted in SDS-PAGE retardation (Fig. 5, inset panel) that mimiced migration changes caused by phosphorylation. Thus, caution should be used in assigning such shifts to phosphorylation, particularly since PV indirectly also increases tyrosine phosphorylation of many proteins. Second, we propose a potential unique role of keratins in sequestering oxidized damaged proteins, such as Ran, when proteasome function is inhibited or overwhelmed (Fig. 5). Such a role meshes well with the known function of K8/K18 in cytoprotection, as demonstrated particularly in the liver (37). It will be important to determine whether keratin sequestration of oxidized proteins extends to other keratins or other IF proteins and the scope of other non-Ran oxidized proteins that can be involved in such binding. Keratin binding to oxidized proteins does involve other non-Ran proteins, as demonstrated herein for G
(Fig. 3B). A data bank search of the Ran sequence surrounding Cys-112 did not show homology with other non-Ran proteins. This, coupled with the ability of K8/K18 to bind oxidized Ran and G
, suggested the importance of nonlinear, and likely charged, epitopes in such binding. Interestingly, the Ran crystal structure (38) supports the importance of oxidized Ran Cys-112 in binding to K8/K18 since Cys-112 is exposed on the surface of the Ran molecule in contrast to Ran Cys-85 and Cys-120, which are more hidden. It remains to be determined whether Ran Cys-112 oxidation interferes with any of its nucleo-cytoplasmic functions.
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| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains two supplementary tables. ![]()
Supported in part by a Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Research Award. To whom reprint requests should be addressed: Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mail code 154J, 3801 Miranda Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304. Fax: 650-852-3259; E-mail: guozhongtao{at}stanford.edu. ![]()
¶ Supported in part by a Veterans Affairs Research Enhancement Award Program. ![]()
|| Supported by an European Molecular Biology Organization long term post-doctoral fellowship. ![]()

To whom correspondence should be addressed: Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mail code 154J, 3801 Miranda Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304. Fax: 650-852-3259.
1 The abbreviations used are: K, keratin; Ab, antibody; An, anisomycin; G
, GTP-binding protein
subunit; h, human; r, recombinant; IF, intermediate filament; OA, okadaic acid; PTP, protein tyrosine phosphatase; PV, pervanadate; WT, wild type. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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