Calpain Cleaves Most Components in the Multiple Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase Complex and Affects Their Functions

Phosphocode-dependent glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase 1 signaling in immunity, metabolism, and disease

Ubiquitously expressed aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases play essential roles in decoding genetic information required for protein synthesis in every living species. Growing evidence suggests that they also function as crossover mediators of multiple biological processes required for homeostasis. In humans, eight cytoplasmic tRNA synthetases form a central machinery called the multi-tRNA synthetase complex (MSC). The formation of MSCs appears to be essential for life, although the role of MSCs remains unclear. Glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase 1 (EPRS1) is the most evolutionarily derived component within the MSC that plays a critical role in immunity and metabolism (beyond its catalytic role in translation) via stimulus-dependent phosphorylation events. This review focuses on the role of EPRS1 signaling in inflammation resolution and metabolic modulation. The involvement of EPRS1 in diseases such as cancer is also discussed.

Loss of threonyl-tRNA synthetase-like protein Tarsl2 has little impact on protein synthesis but affects mouse development

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are essential components for mRNA translation. Two sets of aaRSs are required for cytoplasmic and mitochondrial translation in vertebrates. Interestingly, TARSL2 is a recently evolved duplicated gene of TARS1 (encoding cytoplasmic threonyl-tRNA synthetase) and represents the only duplicated aaRS gene in vertebrates. Although TARSL2 retains the canonical aminoacylation and editing activities in vitro, whether it is a true tRNA synthetase for mRNA translation in vivo is unclear. In this study, we showed that Tars1 is an essential gene since homozygous Tars1 knockout mice were lethal. In contrast, when Tarsl2 was deleted in mice and zebrafish, neither the abundance nor the charging levels of tRNA^Thrs were changed, indicating that cells relied on Tars1 but not on Tarsl2 for mRNA translation. Furthermore, Tarsl2 deletion did not influence the integrity of the multiple tRNA synthetase complex (MSC), suggesting that Tarsl2 is a peripheral member of the MSC. Finally, we observed that Tarsl2-deleted mice exhibited severe developmental retardation, elevated metabolic capacity, and abnormal bone and muscle development after 3 weeks. Collectively, these data suggest that, despite its intrinsic activity, loss of Tarsl2 has little influence on protein synthesis but does affect mouse development.

Activation of Calpain Contributes to Mechanical Ventilation-Induced Depression of Protein Synthesis in Diaphragm Muscle

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a clinical tool that provides respiratory support to patients unable to maintain adequate alveolar ventilation on their own. Although MV is often a life-saving intervention in critically ill patients, an undesired side-effect of prolonged MV is the rapid occurrence of diaphragmatic atrophy due to accelerated proteolysis and depressed protein synthesis. Investigations into the mechanism(s) responsible for MV-induced diaphragmatic atrophy reveal that activation of the calcium-activated protease, calpain, plays a key role in accelerating proteolysis in diaphragm muscle fibers. Moreover, active calpain has been reported to block signaling events that promote protein synthesis (i.e., inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activation). While this finding suggests that active calpain can depress muscle protein synthesis, this postulate has not been experimentally verified. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that active calpain plays a key role in the MV-induced depression of both anabolic signaling events and protein synthesis in the diaphragm muscle. MV-induced activation of calpain in diaphragm muscle fibers was prevented by transgene overexpression of calpastatin, an endogenous inhibitor of calpain. Our findings indicate that overexpression of calpastatin averts MV-induced activation of calpain in diaphragm fibers and rescues the MV-induced depression of protein synthesis in the diaphragm muscle. Surprisingly, deterrence of calpain activation did not impede the MV-induced inhibition of key anabolic signaling events including mTOR activation. However, blockade of calpain activation prevented the calpain-induced cleavage of glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase in diaphragm fibers; this finding is potentially important because aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases play a central role in protein synthesis. Regardless of the mechanism(s) responsible for calpain’s depression of protein synthesis, these results provide the first evidence that active calpain plays an important role in promoting the MV-induced depression of protein synthesis within diaphragm fibers.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases of the multi-tRNA synthetase complex and their role in tumorigenesis

In mammalian cells, 20 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS) catalyze the ligation of amino acids to their cognate tRNAs to generate aminoacylated-tRNAs. In higher eukaryotes, 9 of the 20 AARSs, along with 3 auxiliary proteins, join to form the cytoplasmic multi-tRNA synthetase complex (MSC). The complex is absent in prokaryotes, but evolutionary expansion of MSC constituents, primarily by addition of novel interacting domains, facilitates formation of subcomplexes that join to establish the holo-MSC. In some cases, environmental cues direct the release of constituents from the MSC which enables the execution of non-canonical, i.e., "moonlighting", functions distinct from their essential activities in protein translation. These activities are generally beneficial, but can also be deleterious to the cell. Elucidation of the non-canonical activities of several AARSs residing in the MSC suggest they are potential therapeutic targets for cancer, as well as metabolic and neurologic diseases. Here, we describe the role of MSC-resident AARSs in cancer progression, and the factors that regulate their release from the MSC. Also, we highlight recent developments in therapeutic modalities that target MSC AARSs for cancer prevention and treatment.

Distinct pathogenic mechanisms of various RARS1 mutations in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like disease

Mutations of the genes encoding aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are highly associated with various central nervous system disorders. Recurrent mutations, including c.5A>G, p.D2G; c.1367C>T, p.S456L; c.1535G>A, p.R512Q and c.1846_1847del, p. Y616Lfs*6 of RARS1 gene, which encodes two forms of human cytoplasmic arginyl-tRNA synthetase (hArgRS), are linked to Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like disease (PMLD) with unclear pathogenesis. Among these mutations, c.5A>G is the most extensively reported mutation, leading to a p.D2G mutation in the N-terminal extension of the long-form hArgRS. Here, we showed the detrimental effects of R512Q substitution and ΔC mutations on the structure and function of hArgRS, while the most frequent mutation c.5A>G, p.D2G acted in a different manner without impairing hArgRS activity. The nucleotide substitution c.5A>G reduced translation of hArgRS mRNA, and an upstream open reading frame contributed to the suppressed translation of the downstream main ORF. Taken together, our results elucidated distinct pathogenic mechanisms of various RARS1 mutations in PMLD.

Nitrosative stress inhibits aminoacylation and editing activities of mitochondrial threonyl-tRNA synthetase by S-nitrosation

Structure and/or function of proteins are frequently affected by oxidative/nitrosative stress via posttranslational modifications. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) constitute a class of ubiquitously expressed enzymes that control cellular protein homeostasis. Here, we found the activity of human mitochondrial (mt) threonyl-tRNA synthetase (hmtThrRS) is resistant to oxidative stress (H₂O₂) but profoundly sensitive to nitrosative stress (S-nitrosoglutathione, GSNO). Further study showed four Cys residues in hmtThrRS were modified by S-nitrosation upon GSNO treatment, and one residue was one of synthetic active sites. We analyzed the effect of modification at individual Cys residue on aminoacylation and editing activities of hmtThrRS in vitro and found that both activities were decreased. We further confirmed that S-nitrosation of mtThrRS could be readily detected in vivo in both human cells and various mouse tissues, and we systematically identified dozens of S-nitrosation-modified sites in most aaRSs, thus establishing both mitochondrial and cytoplasmic aaRS species with S-nitrosation ex vivo and in vivo, respectively. Interestingly, a decrease in the S-nitrosation modification level of mtThrRS was observed in a Huntington disease mouse model. Overall, our results establish, for the first time, a comprehensive S-nitrosation-modified aaRS network and a previously unknown mechanism on the basis of the inhibitory effect of S-nitrosation on hmtThrRS.

Hearing impairment-associated KARS mutations lead to defects in aminoacylation of both cytoplasmic and mitochondrial tRNALys

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are ubiquitously expressed, essential enzymes, synthesizing aminoacyl-tRNAs for protein synthesis. Functional defects of aaRSs frequently cause various human disorders. Human KARS encodes both cytosolic and mitochondrial lysyl-tRNA synthetases (LysRSs). Previously, two mutations (c.1129G>A and c.517T>C) were identified that led to hearing impairment; however, the underlying biochemical mechanism is unclear. In the present study, we found that the two mutations have no impact on the incorporation of LysRS into the multiple-synthetase complex in the cytosol, but affect the cytosolic LysRS level, its tertiary structure, and cytosolic tRNA aminoacylation in vitro. As for mitochondrial translation, the two mutations have little effect on the steady-state level, mitochondrial targeting, and tRNA binding affinity of mitochondrial LysRS. However, they exhibit striking differences in charging mitochondrial tRNA^Lys, with the c.517T>C mutant being completely deficient in vitro and in vivo. We constructed two yeast genetic models, which are powerful tools to test the in vivo aminoacylation activity of KARS mutations at both the cytosolic and mitochondrial levels. Overall, our data provided biochemical insights into the potentially molecular pathological mechanism of KARS c.1129G>A and c.517T>C mutations and provided yeast genetic bases to investigate other KARS mutations in the future.

Newly acquired N-terminal extension targets threonyl-tRNA synthetase-like protein into the multiple tRNA synthetase complex

A typical feature of eukaryotic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) is the evolutionary gain of domains at either the N- or C-terminus, which frequently mediating protein–protein interaction. TARSL2 (mouse Tarsl2), encoding a threonyl-tRNA synthetase-like protein (ThrRS-L), is a recently identified aaRS-duplicated gene in higher eukaryotes, with canonical functions in vitro, which exhibits a different N-terminal extension (N-extension) from TARS (encoding ThrRS). We found the first half of the N-extension of human ThrRS-L (hThrRS-L) is homologous to that of human arginyl-tRNA synthetase. Using the N-extension as a probe in a yeast two-hybrid screening, AIMP1/p43 was identified as an interactor with hThrRS-L. We showed that ThrRS-L is a novel component of the mammalian multiple tRNA synthetase complex (MSC), and is reliant on two leucine zippers in the N-extension for MSC-incorporation in humans, and mouse cell lines and muscle tissue. The N-extension was sufficient to target a foreign protein into the MSC. The results from a Tarsl2-deleted cell line showed that it does not mediate MSC integrity. The effect of phosphorylation at various sites of hThrRS-L on its MSC-targeting is also explored. In summary, we revealed that ThrRS-L is a bona fide component of the MSC, which is mediated by a newly evolved N-extension domain.

Ca2+-Binding Proteins of the EF-Hand Superfamily: Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers and Novel Therapeutic Targets

A multitude of Ca²⁺-sensor proteins containing the specific Ca²⁺-binding motif (helix-loop-helix, called EF-hand) are of major clinical relevance in a many human diseases. Measurements of troponin, the first intracellular Ca-sensor protein to be discovered, is nowadays the "gold standard" in the diagnosis of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Mutations have been identified in calmodulin and linked to inherited ventricular tachycardia and in patients affected by severe cardiac arrhythmias. Parvalbumin, when introduced into the diseased heart by gene therapy to increase contraction and relaxation speed, is considered to be a novel therapeutic strategy to combat heart failure. S100 proteins, the largest subgroup with the EF-hand protein family, are closely associated with cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune pathologies. The intention of this review is to summarize the clinical importance of this protein family and their use as biomarkers and potential drug targets, which could help to improve the diagnosis of human diseases and identification of more selective therapeutic interventions.

Structural control of caspase-generated glutamyl-tRNA synthetase by appended noncatalytic WHEP domains

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are ubiquitous, evolutionarily conserved enzymes catalyzing the conjugation of amino acids onto cognate tRNAs. During eukaryotic evolution, tRNA synthetases have been the targets of persistent structural modifications. These modifications can be additive, as in the evolutionary acquisition of noncatalytic domains, or subtractive, as in the generation of truncated variants through regulated mechanisms such as proteolytic processing, alternative splicing, or coding region polyadenylation. A unique variant is the human glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetase (EPRS) consisting of two fused synthetases joined by a linker containing three copies of the WHEP domain (termed by its presence in tryptophanyl-, histidyl-, and glutamyl-prolyl-tRNA synthetases). Here, we identify site-selective proteolysis as a mechanism that severs the linkage between the EPRS synthetases in vitro and in vivo Caspase action targeted Asp-929 in the third WHEP domain, thereby separating the two synthetases. Using a neoepitope antibody directed against the newly exposed C terminus, we demonstrate EPRS cleavage at Asp-929 in vitro and in vivo Biochemical and biophysical characterizations of the N-terminally generated EPRS proteoform containing the glutamyl-tRNA synthetase and most of the linker, including two WHEP domains, combined with structural analysis by small-angle neutron scattering, revealed a role for the WHEP domains in modulating conformations of the catalytic core and GSH-S-transferase-C-terminal-like (GST-C) domain. WHEP-driven conformational rearrangement altered GST-C domain interactions and conferred distinct oligomeric states in solution. Collectively, our results reveal long-range conformational changes imposed by the WHEP domains and illustrate how noncatalytic domains can modulate the global structure of tRNA synthetases in complex eukaryotic systems.