Ubiquitin metabolism in ts85 cells, a mouse carcinoma line that contains a thermolabile ubiquitin activating enzyme.

Red blood cell-mediated microinjection was used to introduce radioiodinated ubiquitin into ts85 cells, a mouse cell line that contains a thermolabile ubiquitin-activating enzyme (E1). The proportion of ubiquitin present as histone conjugates, high molecular weight conjugates, and free molecules was then determined by gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. When ts85 cells were incubated at the nonpermissive temperature, 39.5 degrees C, high molecular weight conjugates accumulated. This unexpected result was confirmed by Western blot analyses. To determine whether ubiquitin conjugates formed under nonpermissive conditions or merely persisted after the temperature increase, ts85 cells were incubated at 39.5 degrees C to generate large amounts of conjugates and then shifted to 42 degrees C. The higher temperature resulted in a 25% reduction in conjugates, but upon return to 39.5 degrees C, the ubiquitin conjugates were restored to pre-42 degrees C amounts. Since all changes in ubiquitin conjugate levels occurred above 39.5 degrees C, ts85 cells can couple ubiquitin to cellular proteins even after prolonged culture at nonpermissive temperatures. Western blot analyses showed that less than 10% of the E1 molecules present in ts85 cells at 31 degrees C remained after 2 h at 39.5 degrees C. However, when 125I-ubiquitin was added to extracts from heated ts85 cells an apparent high molecular weight form of E1 and thiol ester adducts between ubiquitin and the E2 carrier proteins were detected by electrophoresis at 4 degrees C. Considering both in vivo and in vitro demonstrations that heated ts85 cells retain the ability to conjugate ubiquitin to endogenous proteins, considerable caution must be exercised in the design and interpretation of proteolysis experiments using this mutant cell line.