A kinetic model for USP14 regulated substrate degradation in 26S proteasome

Despite high-resolution structural studies on the USP14-proteasome-substrate complexes, time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) results on USP14-regulated allostery of the 26S proteasome are still very limited and a quantitative understanding of substrate degradation dynamics remains elusive. In this study, we propose a mean field model of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for USP14 regulated substrate degradation in 26S proteasome. The kinetic model incorporates recent cryo-EM findings on the allostery of 26S proteasome and generates results in good agreement with time-resolved experimental observations. The model elucidates that USP14 typically reduces the substrate degradation rate and reveals the functional dependence of this rate on the concentrations of substrate and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) of the substrate for different ATP concentrations is predicted. When multiple substrates are present, the model suggests that substrates that are easier to insert into the OB-ring and disengage from the proteasome, or less likely to undergo deubiquitination would be more favored to be degraded by the USP14-bound proteasome. Author SummaryThe proteasome is a crucial protein complex involved in the degradation of damaged or unnecessary proteins within cells, requiring ATP and ubiquitin for its functioning. It is regulated by cellular factors that transiently associate with it, often referred to as proteasome-associated proteins. USP14 is such a protein that activates its deubiquitination activity through reversible binding to the proteasome, thereby decreasing the substrate degradation activity of the proteasome. In this study, we developed a kinetic model to describe how USP14 regulates substrate degradation in proteasome based on recent experimental findings. The model yields result consistent with experimental observations, demonstrating that the mean-field description of mass action law for chemical reactions also applies to complex biomolecular machineries.