Cited by 40Cancer, Hypoxia, and MetabolismAmino Acid Enzymes and MetabolismBiochemical and Molecular Research

An epitope tag alters phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase structure and impairs ability to support cell proliferation

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Mattaini, Katherine R, Brignole, Edward J, Kini, Mitali, Davidson, Shawn M, Fiske, Brian P, Drennan, Catherine L, Vander Heiden, Matthew G·2015·Cancer & Metabolism

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The gene encoding the serine biosynthesis pathway enzyme PHGDH is located in a region of focal genomic copy number gain in human cancers. Cells with PHGDH amplification are dependent on enzyme expression for proliferation. However, dependence on increased PHGDH expression extends beyond production of serine alone, and further studies of PHGDH function are necessary to elucidate its role in cancer cells. These studies will require a physiologically relevant form of the enzyme for experiments using engineered cell lines and recombinant protein. RESULTS: The addition of an N-terminal epitope tag to PHGDH abolished the ability to support proliferation of PHGDH-amplified cells despite retention of some activity to convert 3-PG to PHP. Introducing an R236E mutation into PHGDH eliminates enzyme activity, and this catalytically inactive enzyme cannot support proliferation of PHGDH-dependent cells, arguing that canonical enzyme activity is required. Tagged and untagged PHGDH exhibit the same intracellular localization and ability to produce D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D-2HG), an error product of PHGDH, arguing that neither mislocalization nor loss of D-2HG production explains the inability of epitope-tagged PHGDH to support proliferation. To enable studies of PHGDH function, we report a method to purify recombinant PHGDH and found that untagged enzyme activity was greater than N-terminally tagged enzyme. Analysis of tagged and untagged PHGDH using size exclusion chromatography and electron microscopy found that an N-terminal epitope tag alters enzyme structure. CONCLUSIONS: Purification of untagged recombinant PHGDH eliminates the need to use an epitope tag for enzyme studies. Furthermore, while tagged PHGDH retains some ability to convert 3PG to PHP, the structural alterations caused by including an epitope tag disrupts the ability of PHGDH to sustain cancer cell proliferation.

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  • Functional PHGDH loss is toxic to tumor cells with PHGDH amplification or high serine biosynthetic flux.

    “Functional PHGDH loss is toxic to tumor cells with PHGDH amplification or high serine biosynthetic flux (Locasale et al., 2011; Mattaini et al., 2015; Possemato et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2017), and small-molecule inhibitors targeting PHGDH have been shown to inhibit serine synthesis and tumor proliferation in vitro and in xenograft cancer models (Mullarky et al., 2016; Pacold et al., 2016; Wang”

    From Targeting Metabolism for Cancer Therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Mattaini et al., 2015

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Authors
Mattaini, K. R., Brignole, E. J., Kini, M., Davidson, S. M., Fiske, B. P., Drennan, C. L., & Vander Heiden, M. G.
Affiliations
  • Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research At MIT (US)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
Venue
Cancer & Metabolism
Published
2015-04-29
Volume
3
Issue
1
Pages
5-5
ISSN
2049-3002 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1978908743
Cited by
38
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
FWCI
1.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cancer & Metabolism (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1122374, T32GM007287, R01CA168653)
  • American Association for Cancer Research
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
  • National Cancer Institute (R01CA168653, P30CA014051, P30-CA-14051)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007287)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Amino Acid Enzymes and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Biochemical and Molecular Research
Keywords
PHGDH, epitope tagging, recombinant protein purification, enzyme structure, serine biosynthesis, tumor cell proliferation, D-2-hydroxyglutarate, 3-phosphoglycerate

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