The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation

<p>T-lymphocytes are an essential cell type of the adaptive immune system. Due to their importance in immune responses and disorders, the molecular mechanisms leading to T-lymphocyte activation have been the subject of extensive research which has translated into important therapeutic developm...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Geoghegan, V, Vincent Loic Geoghegan
Other Authors: Acuto, O
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
_version_ 1817932212958396416
author Geoghegan, V
Vincent Loic Geoghegan
author2 Acuto, O
author_facet Acuto, O
Geoghegan, V
Vincent Loic Geoghegan
author_sort Geoghegan, V
collection OXFORD
description <p>T-lymphocytes are an essential cell type of the adaptive immune system. Due to their importance in immune responses and disorders, the molecular mechanisms leading to T-lymphocyte activation have been the subject of extensive research which has translated into important therapeutic developments. Early signalling events involving tyrosine phosphorylation are well characterised. However, later events involving other post-translational modifications are less well understood. Several studies have provided evidence suggesting a role for protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation. Arginine methylation is an essential post-translational modification in mammals and yet has not been extensively studied. No large scale analysis of arginine methylation sites has been performed.</p> <p>To gain insight into the role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation, the aims of this work were to: 1. Establish whether levels of arginine methylation are altered during Tlymphocyte activation 2. Use mass spectrometry based proteomics to identify arginine methylated proteins in the T-lymphocyte proteome 3. Further characterise an arginine methylated protein important to Tlymphocyte activation Arginine methylation was found to be induced after long term (&gt;20 hours) stimulation of primary T-lymphocytes. Large increases in the main protein arginine methyltransferase, PRMT1, were also observed. Enrichment and labelling methods were developed to detect arginine methylated peptides from T-lymphocytes by mass spectrometry. This resulted in the identification of 265 unique arginine methylation sites in 141 proteins. 204 of the methylation sites were novel and 103 of the proteins had not previously been described as arginine methylated. Individual arginine methylation sites were characterised before and after activation of T-lymphocytes, with some sites showing significant changes in abundance. Among the novel arginine methylated proteins discovered were Dynamin II, WASp and WIPF1. These proteins are involved in re-organisation of the actin cytoskeleton at the immunological synapse formed between a Tlymphocyte and an antigen presenting cell. The functional consequences of the arginine methylation sites inWASp were characterised. WASp is essential for T-lymphocyte activation and some initial evidence showed that one of the arginine methylation sites is important for WASp activation.</p>
first_indexed 2024-03-06T19:42:15Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:2116068d-2a0a-4785-a450-75169da4dc6b
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-09T03:34:20Z
publishDate 2012
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:2116068d-2a0a-4785-a450-75169da4dc6b2024-12-01T17:54:00ZThe role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activationThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:2116068d-2a0a-4785-a450-75169da4dc6bImmunologyImmunochemistryMass spectrometryLife SciencesProtein chemistryBiologyCell Biology (see also Plant sciences)BiochemistryEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2012Geoghegan, VVincent Loic GeogheganAcuto, O<p>T-lymphocytes are an essential cell type of the adaptive immune system. Due to their importance in immune responses and disorders, the molecular mechanisms leading to T-lymphocyte activation have been the subject of extensive research which has translated into important therapeutic developments. Early signalling events involving tyrosine phosphorylation are well characterised. However, later events involving other post-translational modifications are less well understood. Several studies have provided evidence suggesting a role for protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation. Arginine methylation is an essential post-translational modification in mammals and yet has not been extensively studied. No large scale analysis of arginine methylation sites has been performed.</p> <p>To gain insight into the role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation, the aims of this work were to: 1. Establish whether levels of arginine methylation are altered during Tlymphocyte activation 2. Use mass spectrometry based proteomics to identify arginine methylated proteins in the T-lymphocyte proteome 3. Further characterise an arginine methylated protein important to Tlymphocyte activation Arginine methylation was found to be induced after long term (&gt;20 hours) stimulation of primary T-lymphocytes. Large increases in the main protein arginine methyltransferase, PRMT1, were also observed. Enrichment and labelling methods were developed to detect arginine methylated peptides from T-lymphocytes by mass spectrometry. This resulted in the identification of 265 unique arginine methylation sites in 141 proteins. 204 of the methylation sites were novel and 103 of the proteins had not previously been described as arginine methylated. Individual arginine methylation sites were characterised before and after activation of T-lymphocytes, with some sites showing significant changes in abundance. Among the novel arginine methylated proteins discovered were Dynamin II, WASp and WIPF1. These proteins are involved in re-organisation of the actin cytoskeleton at the immunological synapse formed between a Tlymphocyte and an antigen presenting cell. The functional consequences of the arginine methylation sites inWASp were characterised. WASp is essential for T-lymphocyte activation and some initial evidence showed that one of the arginine methylation sites is important for WASp activation.</p>
spellingShingle Immunology
Immunochemistry
Mass spectrometry
Life Sciences
Protein chemistry
Biology
Cell Biology (see also Plant sciences)
Biochemistry
Geoghegan, V
Vincent Loic Geoghegan
The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title_full The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title_fullStr The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title_full_unstemmed The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title_short The role of protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte activation
title_sort role of protein arginine methylation in t lymphocyte activation
topic Immunology
Immunochemistry
Mass spectrometry
Life Sciences
Protein chemistry
Biology
Cell Biology (see also Plant sciences)
Biochemistry
work_keys_str_mv AT geogheganv theroleofproteinargininemethylationintlymphocyteactivation
AT vincentloicgeoghegan theroleofproteinargininemethylationintlymphocyteactivation
AT geogheganv roleofproteinargininemethylationintlymphocyteactivation
AT vincentloicgeoghegan roleofproteinargininemethylationintlymphocyteactivation