Computationally Driven Top-Down Mass Spectrometry of Ubiquitinated Proteins

Abstract

Ubiquitination regulates numerous cellular processes through the attachment of polyubiquitin (Ub) chains that vary in linkage type, length, and branching topology. However, current mass spectrometry approaches cannot simultaneously define both the site of ubiquitination and the topology of the attached Ub chain on intact protein substrates. Here, we present the first integrated strategy that enables simultaneous determination of ubiquitin site and chain architecture using top-down mass spectrometry (TD-MS). Central to this approach is UbqTop, a custom computational platform that predicts Ub chain topology from tandem MS (MS{superscript 2}) fragmentation data by utilizing Bayesian-like scoring algorithm. To address the challenge of analyzing complex substrates, we combine this with selective Asp-N proteolysis, which digests the substrate while preserving intact Ub chains. This enables direct, site-resolved mapping of Ub chain topology on proteins. We demonstrate the broad utility of this method on both free Ub chains and multiply ubiquitinated protein substrates, including the resolution of isomeric chains and branched architectures. Together, this work establishes a powerful new framework for proteoform-level analysis of ubiquitin signaling with unprecedented structural resolution.