Zinc Finger DHHC-Type Containing 13 Regulates Fate Specification of Ectoderm and Mesoderm Cell Lineages by Modulating Smad6 Activity

The ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily: From biological functions to therapeutic targets of diseases

The ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily belongs to the zinc finger DHHC-domain containing (ZDHHC) family, including ZDHHC13 and ZDHHC17. Recent studies have shown that the ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily is involved in various pathological and physiological processes, including S-palmitoylation, Mg2+ transport, and CALCOCO1-mediated Golgiphagy. Moreover, the ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily plays a crucial role in the occurrence and development of many diseases, including Huntington disease (HD), osteoporosis, atopic dermatitis, diabetes, and cancer. In the present review, we describe the distribution, structure, and post-translational modifications (PTMs) of the ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily. Moreover, we effectively summarize the biological functions and associated diseases of this subfamily. Given the pleiotropy of the ZDHHC13/ZDHHC17 subfamily, it is imperative to conduct further research on its members to comprehend the pertinent pathophysiological mechanisms and to devise tactics for managing and controlling various diseases.

The anti-inflammatory role of zDHHC23 through the promotion of macrophage M2 polarization and macrophage necroptosis in large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea)

Zinc finger Asp-His-His-Cys motif-containing (zDHHC) proteins, known for their palmitoyltransferase (PAT) activity, play crucial roles in diverse cellular processes, including immune regulation. However, their non-palmitoyltransferase immunomodulatory functions and involvement in teleost immune responses remain underexplored. In this study, we systematically characterized the zDHHC family in the large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea), identifying 22 members. Phylogenetic analysis unveiled that each of the 22 LczDHHCs formed distinct clusters with their orthologues from other teleost species. Furthermore, all LczDHHCs exhibited a highly conserved DHHC domain, as confirmed by tertiary structure prediction. Notably, LczDHHC23 exhibited the most pronounced upregulation following Pseudomonas plecoglossicida (P. plecoglossicida) infection of macrophage/monocyte cells (MO/MΦ). Silencing LczDHHC23 led to heightened pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and diminished anti-inflammatory cytokine levels in MO/MΦ during infection, indicating its anti-inflammatory role. Functionally, LczDHHC23 facilitated M2-type macrophage polarization, as evidenced by a significant skewing of MO/MΦ towards the pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype upon LczDHHC23 knockdown, along with the inhibition of MO/MΦ necroptosis induced by P. plecoglossicida infection. These findings highlight the non-PAT immunomodulatory function of LczDHHC23 in teleost immune regulation, broadening our understanding of zDHHC proteins in host-pathogen interactions, suggesting LczDHHC23 as a potential therapeutic target for immune modulation in aquatic species.

2-Bromopalmitate inhibits malignant behaviors of HPSCC cells by hindering the membrane location of Ras protein

Palmitoylation, which is mediated by protein acyltransferase (PAT) and performs important biological functions, is the only reversible lipid modification in organism. To study the effect of protein palmitoylation on hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC), the expression levels of 23 PATs in tumor tissues of 8 HPSCC patients were determined, and high mRNA and protein levels of DHHC9 and DHHC15 were found. Subsequently, we investigated the effect of 2-bromopalmitate (2BP), a small-molecular inhibitor of protein palmitoylation, on the behavior of Fadu cells in vitro (50 μM) and in nude mouse xenograft models (50 μmol/kg), and found that 2BP suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and migration of Fadu cells without increasing cell apoptosis. Mechanistically, the effect of 2BP on the transduction of BMP, Wnt, Shh, and FGF signaling pathways was tested with qRT-PCR, and its drug target was explored with western blotting and acyl-biotinyl exchange assay. Our results showed that 2BP inhibited the transduction of the FGF/ERK signaling pathway. The palmitoylation level of Ras protein decreased after 2BP treatment, and its distribution in the cell membrane structure was reduced significantly. The findings of this work reveal that protein palmitoylation mediated by DHHC9 and DHHC15 may play important roles in the occurrence and development of HPSCC. 2BP is able to inhibit the malignant biological behaviors of HPSCC cells, possibly via hindering the palmitoylation and membrane location of Ras protein, which might, in turn, offer a low-toxicity anti-cancer drug for targeting the treatment of HPSCC.

Current knowledge of protein palmitoylation in gliomas

Malignant tumor cells can obtain proliferative benefits from deviant metabolic networks. Emerging evidence suggests that lipid metabolism are dramatically altered in gliomas and excessive fatty acd accumulation is detrimentally correlated with the prognosis of glioma patients. Glioma cells possess remarkably high levels of free fatty acids, which, in turn, enhance post-translational modifications (e.g. palmitoylation). Our and other groups found that palmitoylational modification is essential for remaining intracellular homeostasis and cell survival. Disrupting the balance between palmitoylation and depalmitoylation affects glioma cell viability, apoptosis, invasion, self-renew and pyroptosis. In this review, we focused on summarizing roles and relevant mechanisms of protein palmitoylational modification in gliomas.

Pcgf1 Regulates Early Neural Tube Development Through Histone Methylation in Zebrafish

The neural induction constitutes the initial step in the generation of the neural tube. Pcgf1, as one of six Pcgf paralogs, is a maternally expressed gene, but its role and mechanism in early neural induction during neural tube development have not yet been explored. In this study, we found that zebrafish embryos exhibited a small head and reduced or even absence of telencephalon after inhibiting the expression of Pcgf1. Moreover, the neural induction process of zebrafish embryos was abnormally activated, and the subsequent NSC self-renewal was inhibited after injecting the Pcgf1 MO. The results of in vitro also showed that knockdown of Pcgf1 increased the expression levels of the neural markers Pax6, Pou3f1, and Zfp521, but decreased the expression levels of the pluripotent markers Oct4, Hes1, and Nanog, which further confirmed that Pcgf1 was indispensable for maintaining the pluripotency of P19 cells. To gain a better understanding of the role of Pcgf1 in early development, we analyzed mRNA profiles from Pcgf1-deficient P19 cells using RNA-seq. We found that the differentially expressed genes were enriched in many functional categories, which related to the development phenotype, and knockdown of Pcgf1 increased the expression of histone demethylases. Finally, our results showed that Pcgf1 loss-of-function decreased the levels of transcriptional repression mark H3K27me3 at the promoters of Ngn1 and Otx2, and the levels of transcriptional activation mark H3K4me3 at the promoters of Pou5f3 and Nanog. Together, our findings reveal that Pcgf1 might function as both a facilitator for pluripotent maintenance and a repressor for neural induction.

Palmitoyl Acyltransferase Activity of ZDHHC13 Regulates Skin Barrier Development Partly by Controlling PADi3 and TGM1 Protein Stability

Deficiency of the palmitoyl-acyl transferase ZDHHC13 compromises skin barrier permeability and renders mice susceptible to environmental bacterial infection and inflammatory dermatitis. It had been unclear how the lack of ZDHHC13 proteins resulted in cutaneous abnormalities. In this study, we first demonstrate that enzymatic palmitoylation activity, rather than protein scaffolding, by ZDHHC13 is essential for skin barrier integrity, showing that knock-in mice bearing an enzymatically dead DQ-to-AA ZDHHC13 mutation lost their hair after weaning cyclically, recapitulating knockout phenotypes of skin inflammation and dermatitis. To establish the ZDHHC13 substrates responsible for skin barrier development, we employed quantitative proteomic approaches to identify protein molecules whose palmitoylation is tightly controlled by ZDHHC13. We identified over 300 candidate proteins that could be classified into four biological categories: immunological disease, skin development and function, dermatological disease, and lipid metabolism. Palmitoylation of three of these candidates-loricrin, peptidyl arginine deiminase type III, and keratin fiber crosslinker transglutaminase 1-by ZDHHC13 was confirmed by biochemical assay. Palmitoylation was critical for in vivo protein stability of the latter two candidates. Our findings reveal the importance of protein palmitoylation in skin barrier development, partly by promoting envelope protein crosslinking and the filaggrin processing pathway.

Protein Lipidation: Occurrence, Mechanisms, Biological Functions, and Enabling Technologies

Protein lipidation, including cysteine prenylation, N-terminal glycine myristoylation, cysteine palmitoylation, and serine and lysine fatty acylation, occurs in many proteins in eukaryotic cells and regulates numerous biological pathways, such as membrane trafficking, protein secretion, signal transduction, and apoptosis. We provide a comprehensive review of protein lipidation, including descriptions of proteins known to be modified and the functions of the modifications, the enzymes that control them, and the tools and technologies developed to study them. We also highlight key questions about protein lipidation that remain to be answered, the challenges associated with answering such questions, and possible solutions to overcome these challenges.

Protein S-palmitoylation in cellular differentiation

Reversible protein S-palmitoylation confers spatiotemporal control of protein function by modulating protein stability, trafficking and activity, as well as protein-protein and membrane-protein associations. Enabled by technological advances, global studies revealed S-palmitoylation to be an important and pervasive posttranslational modification in eukaryotes with the potential to coordinate diverse biological processes as cells transition from one state to another. Here, we review the strategies and tools to analyze in vivo protein palmitoylation and interrogate the functions of the enzymes that put on and take off palmitate from proteins. We also highlight palmitoyl proteins and palmitoylation-related enzymes that are associated with cellular differentiation and/or tissue development in yeasts, protozoa, mammals, plants and other model eukaryotes.

ZDHHC16 modulates FGF/ERK dependent proliferation of neural stem/progenitor cells in the zebrafish telencephalon

In vertebrates, neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) maintenance is critical for nervous system development and homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the maintenance of NSPCs have not been fully elucidated. Here, we demonstrated that zebrafish ZDHHC16, a DHHC encoding protein, which was related to protein palmitoylation after translation, was expressed in the developing forebrain, and especially in the telencephalon. Loss- and gain-of-function studies showed that ZDHHC16 played a crucial role in the regualtion of NSPCs proliferation during zebrafish telencephalic development, via a mechanism dependent on its palmitoyltransferase activity. Further analyses showed that the inhibition of ZDHHC16 led to inactivation of the FGF/ERK signaling pathway during telencephalic NSPCs proliferation and maintenance. Taken together, our results suggest that ZDHHC16 activity is essential for early NSPCs proliferation where it acts to activate the FGF/ERK network, allowing for the initiation of proliferation -regulated gene expression programs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 1014-1028, 2016.

Melatonin promotes the acquisition of neural identity through extracellular-signal-regulated kinases 1/2 activation

Melatonin, a major pineal secretory product, exerts a range of physiological and neuroprotective effects. However, the functional significance of melatonin in determining neural identity, and the mechanisms by which this may occur, is unknown. In this study, P19 cells were used as a model system and cell behavior was monitored. Our data show that melatonin plays an important role in determining cell fate during neural commitment and promoting the differentiation of pluripotent P19 cells (Oct4(+) Sox2(+) ) into neural stem cells (Oct4(-) Sox2(+) ). This promotion appears to coincide with the activation of the MT1 receptor and phosphorylation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2). Furthermore, our results show that melatonin regulates neural fate specification of P19 cells through two distinct mechanisms: the promotion of nuclear localization of ERK1/2 and upregulation of Sox2 transcription, and suppression of Smad1-induced expression of mesodermal-specific genes, such as Bra.