Tension release by N-terminal acetylation

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a major health problem that can result in cardiovascular diseases including hypertensive crisis and stroke. A recent paper in Science by Hwang and Varshavsky shows that the molecular signaling underlying regulation of blood pressure involves N-terminal acetylation of specific proteins and their consecutive degradation by the N-end rule pathway.

N-terminal acetylation is a modification that happens to about 80% of the cell’s proteins. For some N-terminally acetylated proteins, the modification is associated with a shorter molecular lifespan (half-life). However, we still know little about how such molecular effects of N-terminal acetylation are connected to physiological functioning. In a Spotlight article in Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TiBS), Aksnes and colleagues in the NAT group describe this recently revealed connection to blood pressure pathology to provide a new physiological understanding of the N-end rule pathway and N-terminal acetylation.