SUMO Activated Target Traps (SATTs) enable the identification of a comprehensive E3-specific SUMO proteome.

Abstract

Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like conjugation cascades consist of dedicated E1, E2 and E3 enzymes with E3s providing substrate specificity. Mass spectrometry-based approaches have enabled the identification of more than 60,000 acceptor sites for ubiquitin and 40,000 acceptor sites for SUMO2/3. However, E3-to-target wiring is poorly understood. The limited number of SUMO E3s provides the unique opportunity to systematically study E3-substrate wiring. We developed SUMO Activated Target Traps (SATTs) and systematically identified substrates for eight different SUMO E3s, PIAS1, PIAS2, PIAS3, PIAS4, NSMCE2, ZNF451, LAZSUL(ZNF451-3) and ZMIZ2. SATTs enabled us to identify 590 SUMO1 and 1195 SUMO2/3 targets in an E3-specific manner. We found pronounced E3 substrate preference, even at the substrate isoform level. Quantitative proteomics enabled us to measure substrate specificity of E3s, quantified using the SATT index. Furthermore, we developed the Polar SATTs web-based tool (https://amsterdamstudygroup.shinyapps.io/PolaRVolcaNoseR/) to browse the dataset in an interactive manner, increasing the accessibility of this resource for the community. Overall, we uncover E3-to-target wiring of 1681 SUMO substrates, highlighting unique and overlapping sets of substrates for eight different SUMO E3 ligases.