bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/850776; this version posted January 19, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Intramembrane protease RHBDL4 cleaves oligosaccharyltransferase subunits to target them for ER-associated degradation Julia D. Knopf1, Nina Landscheidt1, Cassandra L. Pegg2, Benjamin L. Schulz2, Nathalie Kühnle1, Chao-Wei Chao1, Simon Huck1 and Marius K. Lemberg1, # 1Centre for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. 2School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, ARC Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia. #Corresponding author:
[email protected] Running title: RHBDL4 triggers ERAD of OST subunits Key words: Rhomboid serine protease, Rhbdd1, ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis, post- translational protein abundance control, N-linked glycosylation. Abbreviations ERAD, ER-associated degradation; OST, oligosacharyltransferase; TM, transmembrane; UIM, ubiquitin-interacting motif. Abstract The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER)-resident intramembrane rhomboid protease RHBDL4 generates metastable protein fragments and together with the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) machinery provides a clearance mechanism for aberrant and surplus proteins. However, the endogenous substrate spectrum and with that the role of RHBDL4 in physiological ERAD is mainly unknown. Here, we use a substrate trapping approach in combination with quantitative proteomics to identify physiological RHBDL4 substrates. This revealed oligosacharyltransferase (OST) complex subunits such as the catalytic active subunit STT3A as substrates for the RHBDL4-dependent ERAD pathway. RHBDL4-catalyzed cleavage inactivates OST subunits by triggering dislocation into the cytoplasm and subsequent proteasomal degradation.