During infection some pathogenic gram-negative bacteria, such as Salmonella, manipulate the host ubiquitination system through the delivery of secreted effectors known as novel E3 ubiquitin ligases (NELs). Despite the presence of NELs amongst these well-studied bacterial species, their unique structure has limited the tools that are available to probe their molecular mechanisms and explore their therapeutic potential. In this work, we report the identification of two high affinity engineered ubiquitin variants that can modulate the activity of the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium encoded NEL, SspH1. We show that these ubiquitin variants suppress SspH1-mediated toxicity phenotypes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Additionally, we provide microscopic and flow cytometric evidence that SspH1-mediated toxicity is caused by interference with S. cerevisiae cell cycle progression that can be suppressed in the presence of ubiquitin variants. In vitro ubiquitination assays revealed that these ubiquitin variants increased the amount of SspH1-mediated ubiquitin chain formation. Interestingly, despite the increase in ubiquitin chains, we observe a relative decrease in the formation of SspH1-mediated K48-linked ubiquitin chains on its substrate, PKN1. Taken together our findings suggest that SspH1 toxicity in S. cerevisiae occurs through cell cycle interference and that an engineered ubiquitin variant approach can be used to identify modulators of bacterially encoded ubiquitin ligases.

Engineered Ubiquitin Variants Mitigate Pathogenic Bacterial Ubiquitin Ligase Function