20S proteasome digestion of HeLa cell extracts

The 20S proteasome is responsible for the catalytic activity of all proteasome complexes. Structural constraints mean that only unfolded, extended polypeptide chains may enter the catalytic core of the 20S proteasome. Here we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the 20S CP substrates in-vitro. We revealed that the 20S CP substrates are highly structually disordered. The 20S proteasome substrate group, termed 20S-IDPome are characterized by having significantly more protein binding partners, more post-translational modification sites and are highly enriched for RNA binding proteins. Remarkably, we found that low complexity proteins with prion-like domain which interact with GR or PR di-peptide repeats are the most preferential 20S proteasome substrates. Our finding suggests roles of the 20S proteasome in gene transcription and formation of phase-separated granules.