Analysis of O-acetyl-ADP-ribose as a target for Nudix ADP-ribose hydrolases

The Sir2 family of NAD(+)-dependent histone/protein deacetylases has been implicated in a wide range of biological activities, including gene silencing, life span extension, and chromosomal stability. Recent evidence has indicated that these proteins produce a novel metabolite O-acetyl-ADP-ribose (OAADPr) during deacetylation. Cellular studies have demonstrated that this metabolite exhibits biological effects when microinjected in living cells. However, the molecular targets of OAADPr remain to be identified. Here we have analyzed the ADP-ribose-specific Nudix family of hydrolases as potential in vivo metabolizing enzymes of OAADPr. In vitro, we found that the ADP-ribose hydrolases (yeast YSA1, mouse NudT5, and human NUDT9) cleaved OAADPr to the products AMP and acetylated ribose 5'-phosphate. Steady-state kinetic analyses revealed that YSA1 and NudT5 hydrolyzed OAADPr with similar kinetic constants to those obtained with ADP-ribose as substrate. In dramatic contrast, human NUDT9 was 500-fold less efficient (k(cat)/K(m) values) at hydrolyzing OAADPr compared with ADP-ribose. The inability of OAADPr to inhibit the reaction of NUDT9 with ADP-ribose suggests that NUDT9 binds OAADPr with low affinity, likely due to steric considerations of the additional acetylated-ribose moiety. We next explored whether Nudix hydrolytic activities against OAADPr could be observed in cell extracts from yeast and human. Using a detailed analysis of the products generated during the consumption of OAADPr in extracts, we identified two robust enzymatic activities that were not consistent with the known Nudix hydrolases. Instead, we identified cytoplasmic esterase activities that hydrolyze OAADPr to acetate and ADP-ribose, whereas a distinct activity residing in the nucleus is consistent with an OAADPr-specific acetyltransferase. These findings establish for the first time that select members of the ADP-ribose hydrolases are potential targets of OAADPr metabolism. However, the predominate endogenous activities observed from diverse cell extracts represent novel enzymes.