Studying structural & functional consequences of site-specific phos in Ubiquitin and NEDD8

Talk given by Katrin Stuber (University of Copenhagen) as part of the International GCE Webinar series. Live talk given on June 20th, 2024.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of ubiquitin (Ub) and Ub-like proteins like NEDD8 have become more and more the focus of attention in recent years, since they add a new layer of complexity to the ubiquitin code. In our work we established and optimized the genetic code expansion method for the incorporation of phosphoserine (pSer) and its non-hydrolyzable analog (nhpSer) into Ub and NEDD8. This allowed us to study the influence of this site-specific phosphorylation on structure, function and interactome. Furthermore, we could showcase the use of nhpSer as a superior phosphomimic compared to the widely used phosphomimic amino acids aspartate and glutamate.