RESEARCH ARTICLE Identification and dynamics of the human ZDHHC16-ZDHHC6 palmitoylation cascade Laurence Abrami1†, Tiziano Dallavilla1,2†, Patrick A Sandoz1, Mustafa Demir1, Be´ atrice Kunz1, Georgios Savoglidis2, Vassily Hatzimanikatis2*, F Gisou van der Goot1* 1Global Health Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fe´de´rale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fe´de´rale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland Abstract S-Palmitoylation is the only reversible post-translational lipid modification. Knowledge about the DHHC palmitoyltransferase family is still limited. Here we show that human ZDHHC6, which modifies key proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum, is controlled by an upstream palmitoyltransferase, ZDHHC16, revealing the first palmitoylation cascade. The combination of site specific mutagenesis of the three ZDHHC6 palmitoylation sites, experimental determination of kinetic parameters and data-driven mathematical modelling allowed us to obtain detailed information on the eight differentially palmitoylated ZDHHC6 species. We found that species rapidly interconvert through the action of ZDHHC16 and the Acyl Protein Thioesterase APT2, that each species varies in terms of turnover rate and activity, altogether allowing the cell to robustly *For correspondence: tune its ZDHHC6 activity.
[email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27826.001 (VH);
[email protected] (FGG) †These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction Cells constantly interact with and respond to their environment. This requires tight control of protein Competing interests: The function in time and in space, which largely occurs through reversible post-translational modifica- authors declare that no tions of proteins, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination and S-palmitoylation.