E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP and NBR1-mediated selective autophagy protect additively against proteotoxicity in plant stress responses

PLoS Genet. 2014 Jan 30;10(1):e1004116. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004116. eCollection 2014 Jan.

Abstract

Plant stress responses require both protective measures that reduce or restore stress-inflicted damage to cellular structures and mechanisms that efficiently remove damaged and toxic macromolecules, such as misfolded and damaged proteins. We have recently reported that NBR1, the first identified plant autophagy adaptor with a ubiquitin-association domain, plays a critical role in plant stress tolerance by targeting stress-induced, ubiquitinated protein aggregates for degradation by autophagy. Here we report a comprehensive genetic analysis of CHIP, a chaperone-associated E3 ubiquitin ligase from Arabidopsis thaliana implicated in mediating degradation of nonnative proteins by 26S proteasomes. We isolated two chip knockout mutants and discovered that they had the same phenotypes as the nbr1 mutants with compromised tolerance to heat, oxidative and salt stresses and increased accumulation of insoluble proteins under heat stress. To determine their functional interactions, we generated chip nbr1 double mutants and found them to be further compromised in stress tolerance and in clearance of stress-induced protein aggregates, indicating additive roles of CHIP and NBR1. Furthermore, stress-induced protein aggregates were still ubiquitinated in the chip mutants. Through proteomic profiling, we systemically identified heat-induced protein aggregates in the chip and nbr1 single and double mutants. These experiments revealed that highly aggregate-prone proteins such as Rubisco activase and catalases preferentially accumulated in the nbr1 mutant while a number of light-harvesting complex proteins accumulated at high levels in the chip mutant after a relatively short period of heat stress. With extended heat stress, aggregates for a large number of intracellular proteins accumulated in both chip and nbr1 mutants and, to a greater extent, in the chip nbr1 double mutant. Based on these results, we propose that CHIP and NBR1 mediate two distinct but complementary anti-proteotoxic pathways and protein's propensity to aggregate under stress conditions is one of the critical factors for pathway selection of protein degradation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics*
  • Autophagy / genetics*
  • Carrier Proteins / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Heat-Shock Response / genetics*
  • Mutation
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Oxidative Stress / genetics
  • Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex / genetics
  • Proteolysis
  • Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase / genetics
  • Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase / metabolism
  • Ubiquitin / genetics
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / genetics*
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / metabolism

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • Carrier Proteins
  • NBR1 protein, Arabidopsis
  • Ubiquitin
  • CHIP protein, Arabidopsis
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex
  • ATP dependent 26S protease
  • Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 2013C150203) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (grant IOS–0958066). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.