Project description:Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is an essential Ser/Thr phosphatase that regulates a plethora of cellular processes. PP2A operates as a holoenzyme complex, comprising one each of the scaffolding (A), regulatory (B) and catalytic (C) subunits. PPP2CA is the principal catalytic subunit of the PP2A holoenzyme complex. Although previous studies have reported many substrates of specific PP2A holoenzyme complexes, the full scope of PP2A substrates in cells remains to be defined. To address this, we generated HEK293 cells in which PPP2CA was homozygously knocked in with a dTAG, allowing for efficient and selective degradation of dTAG-PPP2CA with proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) targeting the dTAG. By employing an unbiased global phospho-proteomic analysis, we identified 6,280 phospho-peptides corresponding to 2,204 proteins that showed a significant increase in abundance upon dTAG-PPP2CA degradation, implicating them as potential PPP2CA substrates. Among these, some were established PP2A substrates, while most were novel. Bioinformatic analyses revealed the involvement of the identified potential PPP2CA substrates in many cellular processes, including spliceosome function, the cell cycle, RNA transport and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. We show that a pSP/pTP motif is a predominant target for PPP2CA. We confirmed some of our phosphoproteomic data with immunoblotting, by utilising commercially available phospho-specific antibodies. We provide an in-depth atlas of potential PPP2CA substrates and establish targeted degradation as a robust tool to unveil phosphatase substrates in cells.
Project description:As a serine/threonine phosphatase, protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is essential in numerous physiological processes. Our previously study confirmed PP2A dysfunction can cause azoospermia by generating catalytic subunit of PP2A (Ppp2ca) conditional knockout (CKO) in C57BL/6J mice. Here, we further explored the possible mechanisms by focusing on meiosis initiation and spermatogenesis. The deficiency of Ppp2ca in germ cells conspicuously disturbed spermatogonial differentiation and lead to pachytene arrest, accompanied by defects in programmed double-strand break (DSB) repair and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Furthermore, Ppp2ca-deficient spermatocytes exhibited abnormal agglutination and cohesion complex degradation of chromosome, probably contributing to pachytene arrest. Our study demonstrates the irreplaceable role of PP2A in spermatogenesis and provide more evidences on azoospermia etiology.