Phosphorylation is often used to promote protein ubiquitylation, yet we rarely understand quantitatively how ligase activation and ubiquitin (UB) chain assembly are integrated with phospho-regulation. Here we employ quantitative proteomics and live-cell imaging to dissect individual steps in the PINK1 kinase-PARKIN UB ligase mitochondrial control pathway disrupted in Parkinson’s Disease. PINK1 plays a dual role by phosphorylating PARKIN on its UB-like domain and poly-UB chains on mitochondria. PARKIN activation by PINK1 produces canonical and non-canonical UB chains on mitochondria, and PARKIN-dependent chain assembly is required for accumulation of poly-phospho-UB (poly-p-UB) on mitochondria. In vitro, PINK1 directly activates PARKIN’s ability to assemble canonical and non-canonical UB chains, and promotes association of PARKIN with both p-UB and poly-p-UB. Our data reveal a feed-forward mechanism that explains how PINK1 phosphorylation of both PARKIN and poly-UB chains synthesized by PARKIN drives a program of PARKIN recruitment and mitochondrial ubiquitylation in response to mitochondrial damage.

The PTEN-induced putative kinase protein 1 (PINK1) and ubiquitin (UB) ligase PARKIN direct damaged mitochondria for mitophagy. PINK1 promotes PARKIN recruitment to the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) for ubiquitylation of MOM proteins with canonical and noncanonical UB chains. PINK1 phosphorylates both Ser65 (S65) in the UB-like domain of PARKIN and the conserved Ser in UB itself, but the temporal sequence and relative importance of these events during PARKIN activation and mitochondria quality control remain poorly understood. Using "UB S65A-replacement," we find that PARKIN phosphorylation and activation, and ubiquitylation of Lys residues on a cohort of MOM proteins, occur similarly irrespective of the ability of the UB-replacement to be phosphorylated on S65. In contrast, polyubiquitin (poly-UB) chain synthesis, PARKIN retention on the MOM, and mitophagy are reduced in UB S65A -replacement cells. Analogous experiments examining roles of individual UB chain linkage types revealed the importance of K6 and K63 chain linkages in mitophagy, but phosphorylation of K63 chains by PINK1 did not enhance binding to candidate mitophagy receptors optineurin (OPTN), sequestosome-1 (p62), and nuclear dot protein 52 (NDP52) in vitro. Parallel reaction monitoring proteomics of total mitochondria revealed the absence of p-S65-UB when PARKIN cannot build UB chains, and <0.16% of the monomeric UB pool underwent S65 phosphorylation upon mitochondrial damage. Combining p-S65-UB and p-S65-PARKIN in vitro showed accelerated transfer of nonphosphorylated UB to PARKIN itself, its substrate mitochondrial Rho GTPase (MIRO), and UB. Our data further define a feed-forward mitochondrial ubiquitylation pathway involving PARKIN activation upon phosphorylation, UB chain synthesis on the MOM, UB chain phosphorylation, and further PARKIN recruitment and enzymatic amplification via binding to phosphorylated UB chains.he RING-Between-RING ubiquitin (UB) ligase PARKIN and the PTEN-induced putative kinase protein 1 (PINK1), both of which are mutated in Parkinson's disease, promote ubiquitylation of numerous outer membrane proteins on damaged mitochondria, which facilitates mitophagy (1). When mitochondria are healthy, cytoplasmic PARKIN is thought to be in an unphosphorylated and auto-inhibited state (2-6). Upon mitochondrial damage, PINK1 is stabilized on the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) and promotes phosphorylation of both Ser65 (S65) on PARKIN's UB-like (UBL) domain and the conserved S65 residue in UB itself, which is 62% similar to PARKIN's UBL (1,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). PARKIN is also retained on the mitochondrial surface and ubiquitylates numerous MOM proteins through the formation of both canonical and noncanonical UB chains. The order of events, as well as the precise roles of UB and PARKIN phosphorylation, is poorly defined, and multiple models have been proposed. All models agree that PARKIN activation reverses auto-inhibition but differ in the mechanism and role of p-S65-UB (8,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)). In one model, binding...

SUMMARY Hundreds of human cullin-RING E3 ligases (CRLs) modify thousands of proteins with ubiquitin (UB) to achieve vast regulation. Current dogma posits that CRLs first catalyze UB transfer from an E2 to their client substrates and subsequent polyubiquitylation from various linkage-specific E2s. We report an alternative E3-E3 tagging cascade: many cellular NEDD8-modified CRLs associate with a mechanistically distinct thioester-forming RBR-type E3, ARIH1, and rely on ARIH1 to directly add the first UB and, in some cases, multiple additional individual monoubiquitin modifications onto CRL client substrates. Our data define ARIH1 as a component of the human CRL system, demonstrate that ARIH1 can efficiently and specifically mediate monoubiquitylation of several CRL substrates, and establish principles for how two distinctive E3s can reciprocally control each other for simultaneous and joint regulation of substrate ubiquitylation. These studies have broad implications for CRL-dependent proteostasis and mechanisms of E3-mediated UB ligation.

A distinctive mechanism for ubiquitin (Ub) ligation has recently been proposed for the RING1-IBR-RING2 (RBR) family of E3s: an N-terminal RING1 domain recruits a thioester-linked intermediate complex between Ub and the E2 UbcH7, and a structurally unique C-terminal RING2 domain displays a catalytic cysteine required for Ub ligation. To obtain insights into RBR E3s, we determined the crystal structure of the Human Homolog of Ariadne (HHARI), which reveals the individual RING1, IBR, and RING2 domains embedded in superdomains involving sequences specific to the Ariadne RBR subfamily. The central IBR is flanked on one side by RING1, which is exposed and binds UbcH7. On the other side, a C-terminal autoinhibitory “Ariadne domain” masks the RING2 active site. Insights into RBR E3 mechanisms are provided by structure-based mutations that indicate distinct steps of relief from autoinhibition, Ub transfer from E2 to HHARI, and ligation from the HHARI cysteine to a terminal acceptor.