Acetylome profiling reveals extensive lysine acetylation of the fatty acid metabolism pathway in the diatom phaeodactylum tricornutum

Abstract

N-lysine acetylation represents a highly dynamic and reversibly regulated post-translational modification widespread in almost all organisms, and plays important roles for regulation of protein function in diverse metabolic pathways. However, little is known about the role of lysine acetylation in photosynthetic eukaryotic microalgae. We integrated proteomic approaches to comprehensively characterize the lysine acetylome in the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. In total, 2324 acetylation sites from 1220 acetylated proteins were identified, representing the largest data set of the lysine acetylome in plants to date. Almost all enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis were found to be lysine acetylated. Six putative lysine acetylation sites were identified in a plastid-localized long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase. Site-directed mutagenesis and site-specific incorporation of N-acetyllysine in acyl-CoA synthetase show that acetylation at K407 and K425 increases its enzyme activity. Moreover, the nonenzymatically catalyzed overall hyperacetylation of acyl-CoA synthetase by acetyl-phosphate can be effectively deacetylated and reversed by a sirtuin-type NAD-dependent deacetylase with subcellular localization of both the plastid and nucleus in Phaeodactylum. This work indicates the regulation of acyl-CoA synthetase activity by site-specific lysine acetylation and highlights the potential regulation of fatty acid metabolism by lysine actetylation in the plastid of the diatom Phaeodactylum.