Protein aggregation mediates stoichiometry of protein complexes in aneuploid cells

Aneuploidy, a condition characterized by chromosome gains and losses, causes reduced fitness and numerous cellular stresses, including increased protein aggregation. Here, we identify protein complex stoichiometry imbalances as a major cause of protein aggregation in aneuploid cells. Subunits of pro...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Brennan, Christopher M (Author), Vaites, Laura Pontano (Author), Wells, Jonathan N. (Author), Santaguida, Stefano (Author), Paulo, Joao A. (Author), Storchova, Zuzana (Author), Harper, J. Wade (Author), Marsh, Joseph A. (Author), Amon, Angelika B (Author)
Other Authors: Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2020-06-25T19:24:27Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
Description
Summary:Aneuploidy, a condition characterized by chromosome gains and losses, causes reduced fitness and numerous cellular stresses, including increased protein aggregation. Here, we identify protein complex stoichiometry imbalances as a major cause of protein aggregation in aneuploid cells. Subunits of protein complexes encoded on excess chromosomes aggregate in aneuploid cells, which is suppressed when expression of other subunits is coordinately altered. We further show that excess subunits are either degraded or aggregate and that protein aggregation is nearly as effective as protein degradation at lowering levels of excess proteins. Our study explains why proteotoxic stress is a universal feature of the aneuploid state and reveals protein aggregation as a form of dosage compensation to cope with disproportionate expression of protein complex subunits.
National Institutes of Health (Grant CA206157)
National Institutes of Health (Grant GM118066)