Emerging Roles of Protein Deamidation in Innate Immune Signaling

Abstract

Protein deamidation has been considered a nonenzymatic process associated with protein functional decay or "aging." Recent studies implicate protein deamidation in regulating signal transduction in fundamental biological processes, such as innate immune responses. Work investigating gammaherpesviruses and bacterial pathogens indicates that microbial pathogens deploy deamidases or enzyme-deficient homologues (pseudoenzymes) to induce deamidation of key signaling components and evade host immune responses. Here, we review studies on protein deamidation in innate immune signaling and present several imminent questions concerning the roles of protein deamidation in infection and immunity.