The Josephin domain is a conserved cysteine protease domain found in four human deubiquitinating enzymes: ataxin-3, the ataxin-3-like protein (ATXN3L), Josephin-1, and Josephin-2. Josephin domains from these four proteins were purified and assayed for their ability to cleave ubiquitin substrates. Reaction rates differed markedly both among the different proteins and for different substrates with a given protein. The ATXN3L Josephin domain is a significantly more efficient enzyme than the ataxin-3 domain despite their sharing 85% sequence identity. To understand the structural basis of this difference, the 2.6 Å x-ray crystal structure of the ATXN3L Josephin domain in complex with ubiquitin was determined. Although ataxin-3 and ATXN3L adopt similar folds, they bind ubiquitin in different, overlapping sites. Mutations were made in ataxin-3 at selected positions, introducing the corresponding ATXN3L residue. Only three such mutations are sufficient to increase the catalytic activity of the ataxin-3 domain to levels comparable with that of ATXN3L, suggesting that ataxin-3 has been subject to evolutionary restraints that keep its deubiquitinating activity in check.
Catalysis of the removal of terminal peptide residues that are substituted, cyclized or linked by isopeptide bonds (peptide linkages other than those of alpha-carboxyl to alpha-amino groups).
The hydrolysis of proteins into smaller polypeptides and/or amino acids by cleavage of their peptide bonds.
IEAUniProtKB KW
Enzymatic activity
This protein acts as an enzyme. It is known to catalyze the following reaction
EC 3.4.19.12: Thiol-dependent hydrolysis of ester, thioester, amide, peptide and isopeptide bonds formed by the C-terminal Gly of ubiquitin (a 76-residue protein attached to proteins as an intracellular targeting signal).
The neurodegenerative disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is caused by the presence of an extended polyglutamine stretch (polyQ) in the unstructured C-terminus of the human ataxin-3 (AT3) protein. The structured N-terminal Josephin domain (JD) of AT3 is conserved within a novel family of potential ubiquitin proteases, the JD-containing proteins, which are sub-divided into two groups termed ataxins and Josephins. These AT3 orthologs are encoded by the genomes of organisms ranging from Plasmodium falciparum to humans, with most species possessing more than one homolog. While Josephins consist of JDs alone, ataxins contain additional functional domains that may influence their enzyme activity. Here, we show that the enzyme activity of human AT3 (hAT3) is not affected by the length of polyQ in its C-terminus, even when it is in the range associated with SCA3. We also show that JDs of all human proteins with homology to AT3 and its homologs from various species possess de-ubiquitination activity. These results establish JD-containing proteins as a novel family of active de-ubiquitination enzymes with wide phylogenic distribution.
The Josephin domain is a conserved cysteine protease domain found in four human deubiquitinating enzymes: ataxin-3, the ataxin-3-like protein (ATXN3L), Josephin-1, and Josephin-2. Josephin domains from these four proteins were purified and assayed for their ability to cleave ubiquitin substrates. Reaction rates differed markedly both among the different proteins and for different substrates with a given protein. The ATXN3L Josephin domain is a significantly more efficient enzyme than the ataxin-3 domain despite their sharing 85% sequence identity. To understand the structural basis of this difference, the 2.6 Å x-ray crystal structure of the ATXN3L Josephin domain in complex with ubiquitin was determined. Although ataxin-3 and ATXN3L adopt similar folds, they bind ubiquitin in different, overlapping sites. Mutations were made in ataxin-3 at selected positions, introducing the corresponding ATXN3L residue. Only three such mutations are sufficient to increase the catalytic activity of the ataxin-3 domain to levels comparable with that of ATXN3L, suggesting that ataxin-3 has been subject to evolutionary restraints that keep its deubiquitinating activity in check.
Protein involved in ubiquitin-like modifier processing, activation, conjugation or deconjugation such as Ubl-activating enzymes (E1s), Ubl-conjugating enzymes (E2s), Ubl-protein ligases (E3s), some thiol proteases (Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolases (UCH), Ubiquitin- specific processing proteases (UBP) and ubiquitin-like proteases) and the ubiquitin-like modifier proteins. Besides signaling proteolysis, ubiquitination for example can be a signal for trafficking, kinase activation and other nonproteolytic fates.
Enzyme which catalyzes hydrolysis reaction, i.e. the addition of the hydrogen and hydroxyl ions of water to a molecule with its consequent splitting into two or more simpler molecules.
A reference proteome is a set of protein sequences derived from a complete proteome which constitutes a defined standard for a particular user community. Reference proteomes are manually defined according to a number of criteria. They cover the proteomes of well- studied model organisms and other proteomes of interest for biomedical and biotechnological research. Reference proteomes have been selected to provide broad coverage of the tree of life, and constitute a representative cross-section of the taxonomic diversity to be found within UniProtKB.
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