ADP-ribosylation reactions in animals, plants and bacteria

The meeting on ADP-ribosylation reactions, PARP2017, was held in Budapest(17-19.5.2017). The event is held every two years in Europe, Alternating with the USA session, held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. ADP-ribosylation is a reversible post-translational modification that has been studied in animals, plants, and bacteria, either plant and human pathogenic species. ADP-ribose transferases (ARTs) are enzymes adding poly-ADP-ribose (PARylation) and mono-ADP-ribose (MARylation) to proteins. In recent years, a new wave of interest is occurring on the topics on PARP/ART proteins. ADP-ribosylation is a reversible post-translational modification (PTM) that was thought to modify very few amino acids, mainly glutamate residues, with mono-ADP-ribose (MAR) or poly-ADP-ribose (PAR). Bacteria toxins, as exception, were known to modify other residues, as an exception. For this activity, ADP-ribosyltransferases (ARTs) have been defined writers. ART enzymes are collectively named MAR- or PAR- writers. ADP-ribosylation exerts allosteric effects on enzymes, thereby controlling their catalytic activity, or can modify amino acids that are no longer available for other types of PTM, such as phosphorylation, or methylation. Moreover, the MAR and PAR regions can be read by multiple protein motifs mediating protein-protein interactions.