Specificity for deubiquitination of monoubiquitinated FANCD2 is driven by the N-terminus of USP1

Abstract

The DNA damage response depends on ubiquitin signalling to orchestrate DNA repair. The Fanconi Anemia pathway for interstrand crosslink repair, and the translesion synthesis pathway for DNA damage tolerance, both require cycles of monoubiquitination and deubiquitination. The ubiquitin specific protease USP1 regulates both these pathways by deubiquitinating monoubiquitinated PCNA, FANCD2 and FANCI. Loss of USP1 activity gives rise to chromosomal instability. While many USPs hydrolyse ubiquitin-ubiquitin linkages, USP1 targets ubiquitin-substrate conjugates at specific sites. The molecular basis of USP1s specificity for multiple substrates is poorly understood. Here we show that the molecular determinants for substrate deubiquitination by USP1 reside within the highly conserved and extended N-terminus. We find that the N-terminus of USP1 harbours a FANCD2-specific binding sequence required for deubiquitination of K561 on FANCD2. In contrast, the N-terminus is not required for PCNA or FANCI deubiquitination. Furthermore, we show that the N-terminus of USP1 is sufficient to engineer specificity in a more promiscuous USP.