Over the past 25 years, research in cancer therapeutics has largely focused on two distinct lines of enquiry. In one approach, efforts to understand the underlying cell-autonomous, genetic drivers of tumorigenesis have led to the development of clinically important targeted agents that result in profound, but often not durable, tumour responses in genetically defined patient populations. In the second parallel approach, exploration of the mechanisms of protective tumour immunity has provided several therapeutic strategies - most notably the 'immune checkpoint' antibodies that reverse the negative regulators of T cell function - that accomplish durable clinical responses in subsets of patients with various tumour types. The integration of these potentially complementary research fields provides new opportunities to improve cancer treatments. Targeted and immune-based therapies have already transformed the standard-of-care for several malignancies. However, additional insights into the effects of targeted therapies, along with conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy, on the induction of antitumour immunity will help to advance the design of combination strategies that increase the rate of complete and durable clinical response in patients.

Membrane and secretory proteins that fail to pass quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum are discharged into the cytosol and degraded by the proteasome. Many of the mammalian components involved in this process remain to be identified. We performed a biochemical search for proteins that interact with SEL1L, a protein that is part of the mammalian HRD1 ligase complex and involved in substrate recognition. SEL1L is crucial for dislocation of Class I major histocompatibility complex heavy chains by the human cytomegalovirus US11 protein. We identified AUP1, UBXD8, UBC6e, and OS9 as functionally important components of this degradation complex in mammalian cells, as confirmed by mutagenesis and dominant negative versions of these proteins.class I MHC heavy chain ͉ RI332 ͉ US11

Chromatin accessibility plays a fundamental role in gene regulation. Nucleosome placement, usually measured by quantifying protection of DNA from enzymatic digestion, can regulate accessibility. We introduce a metric that uses micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion in a novel manner to measure chromatin accessibility by combining information from several digests of increasing depths. This metric, MACC (MNase accessibility), quantifies the inherent heterogeneity of nucleosome accessibility in which some nucleosomes are seen preferentially at high MNase and some at low MNase. MACC interrogates each genomic locus, measuring both nucleosome location and accessibility in the same assay. MACC can be performed either with or without a histone immunoprecipitation step, and thereby compares histone and non-histone protection. We find that changes in accessibility at enhancers, promoters and other regulatory regions do not correlate with changes in nucleosome occupancy. Moreover, high nucleosome occupancy does not necessarily preclude high accessibility, which reveals novel principles of chromatin regulation.

Summary YOD1 is a highly conserved deubiquitinating enzyme of the ovarian tumor (otubain) family, whose function has yet to be assigned in mammalian cells. YOD1 is a constituent of a multiprotein complex with p97 as its nucleus, suggesting a functional link to a pathway responsible for the dislocation of misfolded proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum. Expression of a YOD1 variant deprived of its deubiquitinating activity imposes a halt on the dislocation reaction, as judged by the stabilization of various dislocation substrates. Accordingly, we observe an increase in polyubiquitinated dislocation intermediates in association with p97 in the cytosol. This dominant negative effect is dependent on the UBX and Zinc finger domains, appended to the N- and C-terminus of the catalytic otubain core domain, respectively. The assignment of a p97-associated ubiquitin processing function to YOD1 adds to our understanding of p97’s role in the dislocation process.

Protein quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) involves recognition of misfolded proteins and dislocation from the ER lumen into the cytosol, followed by proteasomal degradation. Viruses have co-opted this pathway to destroy proteins that are crucial for host defense. Examination of dislocation of class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) heavy chains (HCs) catalyzed by the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) immunoevasin US11 uncovered a conserved complex of the mammalian dislocation machinery. We analyze the contributions of a novel complex member, SEL1L, mammalian homologue of yHrd3p, to the dislocation process. Perturbation of SEL1L function discriminates between the dislocation pathways used by US11 and US2, which is a second HCMV protein that catalyzes dislocation of class I MHC HCs. Furthermore, reduction of the level of SEL1L by small hairpin RNA (shRNA) inhibits the degradation of a misfolded ribophorin fragment (RI332) independently of the presence of viral accessories. These results allow us to place SEL1L in the broader context of glycoprotein degradation, and imply the existence of multiple independent modes of extraction of misfolded substrates from the mammalian ER.

Autocatalytic processing of the Hedgehog ligand from its precursor protein relies on protein disulfide isomerase and ER-associated degradation.

UbC is one of two stress‐inducible polyubiquitin genes in mammals and is thought to supplement the constitutive UbA genes in maintaining cellular ubiquitin (Ub) levels during episodes of cellular stress. We have generated mice harboring a targeted disruption of the UbC gene. UbC−/− embryos die between embryonic days 12.5 and 14.5 in utero, most likely owing to a severe defect in liver cell proliferation. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts from UbC−/− embryos exhibit reduced growth rates, premature senescence, increased apoptosis and delayed cell‐cycle progression, with slightly, but significantly, decreased steady‐state Ub levels. UbC−/− fibroblasts are hypersensitive to proteasome inhibitors and heat shock, and unable to adequately increase Ub levels in response to these cellular stresses. Most, but not all of the UbC−/− phenotypes can be rescued by providing additional Ub from a poly hemagglutinin‐tagged Ub minigene expressed from the Hprt locus. We propose that UbC is regulated by a process that senses Ub pool dynamics. These data establish that UbC constitutes an essential source of Ub during cell proliferation and stress that cannot be compensated by other Ub genes.

A viral ubiquitin-specific protease domain blocks cellular protein turnover by preemptive removal of ubiquitin chains and establishes an essential role for deubiquitylation in the removal of unfolded proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum.