UC Berkeley

S-Nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) is an endogenous transnitrosation donor involved in S-nitrosation of a variety of cellular proteins, thereby regulating diverse protein functions. Quantitative proteomic methods are necessary to establish which cysteine residues are most sensitive to GSNO-mediated transnitrosation. Here, a competitive cysteine-reactivity profiling strategy was implemented to quantitatively measure the sensitivity of >600 cysteine residues to transnitrosation by GSNO. This platform identified a subset of cysteine residues with a high propensity for GSNO-mediated transnitrosation. Functional characterization of previously unannotated S-nitrosation sites revealed that S-nitrosation of a cysteine residue distal to the 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase type 2 (HADH2) active site impaired catalytic activity. Similarly, S-nitrosation of a non-catalytic cysteine residue in the lysosomal aspartyl protease cathepsin D (CTSD) inhibited proteolytic activation. Together, these studies revealed two previously uncharacterized cysteine residues that regulate protein function, and established a chemical-proteomic platform with capabilities to determine substrate specificity of other cellular transnitrosation agents.