Inhibiting K63 polyubiquitination abolishes no-go type stalled translation surveillance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Incidental ribosome stalling during translation elongation is an aberrant phenomenon during protein synthesis and is subjected to quality control by surveillance systems, in which mRNA and a nascent protein are rapidly degraded. Their detailed molecular mechanisms as well as responsible factors for these processes are beginning to be understood. However, the initial processes for detecting stalled translation that result in degradation remain to be determined. Among the factors identified to date, two E3 ubiquitin ligases have been reported to function in distinct manners. Because ubiquitination is one of the most versatile of cellular signals, these distinct functions of E3 ligases suggested diverse ubiquitination pathways during surveillance for stalled translation. In this study, we report experimental evidences for a unique role of non-proteasomal K63 polyubiquitination during quality control for stalled translation. Inhibiting K63 polyubiquitination by expressing a K63R ubiquitin mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells markedly abolished the quality control responses for stalled translation. More detailed analyses indicated that the effects of K63R mutants were independent of the proteasome and that K63 polyubiquitination is dependent on Hel2, one of the E3 ligases. Moreover, a K63R ubiquitin mutant barely inhibited the quality control pathway for nonstop translation, indicating distinct mechanisms for these highly related quality control pathways. Our results suggest that non-proteasomal K63 polyubiquitination is included in the initial surveillance process of stalled translation and presumably triggers protein degradation steps upon translational stall. These findings provide crucial information regarding the detailed molecular mechanisms for the initial steps involved in quality control systems and their classification.