Mounting evidence suggests that cellular metabolites,in addition to being sources of fuel and macromolecular substrates,are actively involved in signaling and epigenetic regulation.Many metabolites,such as cyclic AMP,which regulates phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, have been identified to modulate DNA and histone methylation and protein stability.Metabolite-driven cellular regulation occurs through two distinct mechanisms:proteins allosterically bind or serve as substrates for protein signaling pathways,and metabolites covalently modify proteins to regulate their functions.Such novel protein metabolites include fumarate,succinyl-CoA,propionyl-CoA, butyryl-CoA and crontonyl-CoA.Other metabolites,includingα-ketoglutarate,succinate and fumarate,regulate epigenetic processes and cell signaling via protein binding.Here,we summarize recent progress in metabolite-derived post-translational protein modification and metabolite-binding associated signaling regulation.Uncovering metabolites upstream of cell signaling and epigenetic networks permits the linkage of metabolic disorders and human diseases,and suggests that metabolite modulation may be a strategy for innovative therapeutics and disease prevention techniques.
Highly efficient and rapid proteolytic digestion of proteins into peptides is a crucial step in shotgun-based proteome-analysis strategy.Tandem digestion by two or more proteases is demonstrated to be helpful for increasing digestion efficiency and decreasing missed cleavages,which results in more peptides that are compatible with mass-spectrometry analysis.Compared to conventional solution digestion,immobilized protease digestion has the obvious advantages of short digestion time,no self-proteolysis,and reusability.We proposed a multiple-immobilized proteases-digestion strategy that combines the advantages of the two digestion strategies mentioned above.Graphene-oxide(GO)-based immobilized trypsin and endoproteinase Glu-C were prepared by covalently attaching them onto the GO surface.The prepared GO-trypsin and GO-Glu-C were successfully applied in standard protein digestion and multiple immobilized proteases digestion of total proteins of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis.Compared to 12-hour solution digestion using trypsin or Glu-C,14%and 7%improvement were obtained,respectively,in the sequence coverage of BSA by one-minute digestion using GO-trypsin and GO-Glu-C.Multiple immobilized-proteases digestion of the total proteins of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis showed 24.3%and 48.7%enhancement in the numbers of identified proteins than was obtained using GO-trypsin or GO-Glu-C alone.The ultra-fast and highly efficient digestion can be contributed to the high loading capacity of protease on GO,which leads to fewer missed cleavages and more complete digestion.As a result,improved protein identification and sequence coverage can be expected.
