Identification of active deubiquitinases in the chicken tissues

The existing protein annotation in chicken is mostly limited to computational predictions based on orthology to other proteins, which often leads to a significant underestimation of the function of these proteins. Genome-scale experimental annotation can provide insight into the actual enzymatic activities of chicken proteins. Amongst post-translational modifications, ubiquitination is of interest as anomalies in ubiquitination are implicated in such diseases as inflammatory disorders, infectious diseases, or malignancies. Ubiquitination is controlled by deubiquitinases (DUBs), which remove ubiquitin from protein substrates. However, the DUBs have not been systematically annotated and quantified in chicken tissues. Here we used a chemoproteomics approach, which is based on active-site probes specific to DUBs, and identified 26 active DUBs in the chicken spleen, cecum, and liver.