cells Article Lysine Acetylation Reshapes the Downstream Signaling Landscape of Vav1 in Lymphocytes Sonia Rodríguez-Fdez 1,2,3 , Lucía Fernández-Nevado 1,2, L. Francisco Lorenzo-Martín 1,2,3 and Xosé R. Bustelo 1,2,3,* 1 Centro de Investigación del Cáncer, CSIC-University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain;
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[email protected] (L.F.L.-M.) 2 Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cáncer, CSIC-University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain 3 Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Cáncer (CIBERONC), CSIC-University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-663194634 Received: 13 January 2020; Accepted: 2 March 2020; Published: 4 March 2020 Abstract: Vav1 works both as a catalytic Rho GTPase activator and an adaptor molecule. These functions, which are critical for T cell development and antigenic responses, are tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent. However, it is not known whether other posttranslational modifications can contribute to the regulation of the biological activity of this protein. Here, we show that Vav1 becomes acetylated on lysine residues in a stimulation- and SH2 domain-dependent manner. Using a collection of both acetylation- and deacetylation-mimicking mutants, we show that the acetylation of four lysine residues (Lys222, Lys252, Lys587, and Lys716) leads to the downmodulation of the adaptor function of Vav1 that triggers the stimulation of the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT). These sites belong to two functional subclasses according to mechanistic criteria. We have also unveiled additional acetylation sites potentially involved in either the stimulation (Lys782) or the downmodulation (Lys335, Lys374) of specific Vav1-dependent downstream responses.