Background: Although ADP-ribosylation has been described five decades ago, only recently a distinction has been made between eukaryotic intracellular poly- and mono-ADP-ribosylating enzymes. Poly-ADP-ribosylation by ARTD1 (formerly PARP1) is best known for its role in DNA damage repair. Other polymer forming enzymes are ARTD2 (formerly PARP2), ARTD3 (formerly PARP3) and ARTD5/6 (formerly Tankyrase 1/2), the latter being involved in Wnt signaling and regulation of 3BP2. Thus several different functions of poly-ADP-ribosylation have been well described whereas intracellular mono-ADP-ribosylation is currently largely undefined. It is for example not known which proteins function as substrate for the different mono-ARTDs. This is partially due to lack of suitable reagents to study mono-ADP-ribosylation, which limits the current understanding of this post-translational modification.
Results: We have optimized a novel screening method employing protein microarrays, ProtoArrays®, applied here for the identification of substrates of ARTD10 (formerly PARP10) and ARTD8 (formerly PARP14). The results of this substrate screen were validated using in vitro ADP-ribosylation assays with recombinant proteins. Further analysis of the novel ARTD10 substrate GSK3β revealed mono-ADP-ribosylation as a regulatory mechanism of kinase activity by non-competitive inhibition in vitro. Additionally, manipulation of the ARTD10 levels in cells accordingly influenced GSK3β activity. Together these data provide the first evidence for a role of endogenous mono-ADP-ribosylation in intracellular signaling.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that substrates of ADP-ribosyltransferases can be identified using protein microarrays. The discovered substrates of ARTD10 and ARTD8 provide the first sets of proteins that are modified by mono-ADP-ribosyltransferases in vitro. By studying one of the ARTD10 substrates more closely, the kinase GSK3β, we identified mono-ADP-ribosylation as a negative regulator of kinase activity.