Proteasomal degradation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 1α is mediated by Homer-3 via the proteasomal S8 ATPase

J. Neurochem. (2012) 122, 2437. Abstract The metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) fine-tune the efficacy of synaptic transmission. This unique feature makes mGluRs potential targets for the treatment of various CNS disorders. There is ample evidence to show that the ubiquitin proteasome system mediates changes in synaptic strength leading to multiple forms of synaptic plasticity. The present study describes a novel interaction between post-synaptic adaptors, long Homer-3 proteins, and one of the 26S proteasome regulatory subunits, the S8 ATPase, that influences the degradation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 1a (mGluR1a). We have shown that the two human long Homer-3 proteins specifically interact with human proteasomal S8 ATPase. We identified that mGluR1a and long Homer-3s immunoprecipitate with the 26S proteasome both in vitro and in vivo. We further found that the mGluR1a receptor can be ubiquitinated and degraded by the 26S proteasome and that Homer-3A facilitates this process. Furthermore, the siRNA mediated silencing of Homer-3 led to increased levels of total and plasma membrane-associated mGluR1a receptors. These results suggest that long Homer-3 proteins control the degradation of mGluR1a receptors by shuttling ubiquitinated mGluR-1a receptors to the 26S proteasome via the S8 ATPase which may modulate synaptic transmission.