Protein lysine acylation, including acetylation and succinylation, has been found to be a major post-translational modification (PTM) and is associated with the regulation of cellular processes that are widespread in bacteria. Vibrio parahemolyticus is a model marine bacterium that causes seafood-borne illness in humans worldwide. The lysine acetylation of V. parahemolyticus has been extensively characterized in our previous work, and here, we report the first global analysis of lysine succinylation and the overlap between the two types of acylation in this bacterium. Using high-accuracy nano liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry combined with affinity purification, we identified 1931 lysine succinylated peptides matched on 642 proteins, with the quantity of the succinyl-proteins accounting for 13.3% of the total proteins in cells. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that these succinylated proteins are involved in almost every cellular process, particularly in protein biosynthesis and metabolism, and are distributed in diverse subcellular compartments. Moreover, several sequence motifs were identified, including succinyl-lysine flanked by a lysine or arginine residue at the -8, -7, or +7 position and without these residues at the -1 or +2 position, and these motifs differ from those found in other bacteria and eukaryotic cells. Furthermore, a total of 517 succinyl-lysine sites (26.7%) on 288 proteins (44.9%) were also found to be acetylated, suggesting extensive overlap between succinylation and acetylation in this bacterium. This systematic analysis provides a promising starting point for further investigations of the physiologic and pathogenic roles of lysine succinylation and acetylation in V. parahemolyticus.
Keywords: V. parahemolyticus; lysine acetylation; lysine succinylation; post-translational modification (PTM); sequence motif.