Smurf1−/−/Smurf2flox/floxMEFs were infected with either Ad-GFP or Ad-Cre adenovirus for 24 hr, then
transfected with Ptch1-FLAG or Ptch1Δ2PY-FLAG along with HA-Ub using
Lipofectamine Plus (Invitrogen). The cells were lysed 24 hr later and Ptch1 and
its mutant were isolated with anti-FLAG agarose beads and resolved by SDS-PAGE
on 6% or 4–12% gradient gels. The ubiquitinated Ptch1 was then detected
with anti-HA (Roche-Shanghai, China). To assay for Ptch ubiquitination in vitro,
an ubiquitination assay was modified from a previously described procedure
(Tang et al., 2011 (link)). Ptch1-FLAG was
captured from transfected HEK293 cell lysates using anti-FLAG agarose. After a
thorough wash, the Ptch1-bound agarose was divided into three aliquots. Empty
anti-FLAG agarose was used as a control. The in vitro ubiquitination assay was
performed by incubating either Ptch1-bound agarose or control agarose at
37°C for 1 hr with ubiquitin-activating enzyme UBE1, E2-conjugating enzyme
UbcH5c, HA-Ub and ATP (all from Boston Biochem, Cambridge, MA) in the presence
or absence of purified His6-Smurf2 or His6-Smurf2CG. After the incubation, the
supernatant was removed, the agarose thoroughly washed, and the Ptch1-FLAG
eluted using the FLAG peptide (Sigma). The eluted fraction was then subjected to
Western blot analysis.