Immunoprecipitation of PTEN coupled Nano-LC−ESI-MS/MS

Nuclear localization of PTEN is essential for its tumor suppressive role, and loss of nuclear PTEN is more prominent than cytoplasmic PTEN in many kinds of cancers. However, nuclear PTEN-specific regulatory mechanisms were rarely reported. Based on the finding that nuclear PTEN is more unstable than cytoplasmic PTEN. Thus, 293T cells were transiently transfected with plasmid encoding Flag-tagged PTEN along with empty vector, followed by affinity purification using an anti-Flag antibody, and the bound proteins were analyzed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC−MS/MS). Here we identify that F-box only protein 22 (FBXO22) induces ubiquitylation of nuclear but not cytoplasmic PTEN at lysine 221, which is responsible for the degradation of nuclear PTEN.