Protein S-prenylation, the attachment of a farnesyl (C15) or geranylgeranyl (C20) isoprenoid, occurs via a thioether bond on cysteine residues, typically near the C-terminus of target proteins. Farnesyl transferase (FTase) and geranylgeranyl

transferase type 1 (GGTase-1) prenylate C-terminal CAAX motifs, whereas Rab geranylgeranyl transferase (RabGGTase/GGTase-2) attaches one or two geranylgeranyl Selleckchem Epigenetic inhibitor groups to a variety of cysteine-containing sequences specifically in Rab proteins, and requires the accessory proteins Rab Escort Protein 1 or 2 (Rep1/2). Protein prenylation is widely conserved in eukaryotes, and substrates include the large Ras, Rho and Rab families of GTPases, nuclear lamins as well as a number of kinases and phosphatases. In addition, certain viral [ 41] and bacterial effector [ 42] proteins are known to be prenylated by the host cell upon infection. Prenylation has been widely studied as a drug target in cancer [ 43] and progeria [ 44], with prenyl transferase inhibitors (PTIs) entering PD-332991 more than 70 clinical trials [ 45]; as a result, a plethora of inhibitor classes is available for these enzymes, with the notable exception of RabGGTase for which a highly selective

and potent inhibitor has yet to be fully validated in cells [ 46]. To date the performance of PTIs in the clinic has been limited at least in part due to specific inhibition driving abnormal and compensatory prenylation by the other prenyltransferases. The wide range of PTIs used as tools in cell biology studies raises a challenge in interpretation and reproducibility, since the potency and selectivity of most of these inhibitors has not been established in a relevant cellular context. As isoprenoids are intermediates of the mevalonate pathway, prenylation is also inhibited by statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) and this is thought to contribute to the therapeutic effects of this class of drugs [ 47]. Over the years a large number of chemical reporters to study prenylation have been reported, with recent

examples incorporating fluorophores [48], affinity handles [49] or chemical tags for bioorthogonal ligation [50 and 51]. Such analogues lend themselves to two distinct applications: in vitro prenylation of purified proteins or in Grape seed extract cell lysates, typically using exogenous recombinant prenyltransferase, or in-cell experiments through metabolic labeling. In vitro prenylation has been used by our lab and others to study the misprenylation of Rabs in models of Choroideremia, a disease resulting from the genetic deletion of Rep1 [ 51 and 52] in which unprenylated Rabs accumulate in the eye, leading to retinal degeneration and ultimately blindness. The rate of prenylation of various Rab proteins in lysates was also used to establish cell-free prenylation efficiency for different members of the Rab family [ 52].