Structural proteomics reveals that misfolded nascent proteins expose buried lysines for ubiquitination and rapid proteasomal degradation.

The proteasome maintains the integrity of eukaryotic proteomes by selectively degrading ubiquitinated protein substrates. Ubiquitination targets a wide range of substrates for degradation, including translationally stalled nascent chains, misfolded proteins, and properly folded but short-lived proteins destined for regulatory degradation. Distinct structural features and ubiquitination patterns across these classes of substrates remain largely undefined. In this study, we combine structural proteomics and time-resolved isotopic labeling to profile the modification sites, dynamics, and conformational properties of the human ubiquitinome. We show that proteins undergoing rapid proteasomal degradation are ubiquitinated at lysine residues that are normally buried within structured regions of their native conformations. We provide proteome-wide evidence that this high-flux subset of the ubiquitinome is enriched in newly synthesized proteins that have non-native conformations. Together, our findings demonstrate how the lack of structural integrity of misfolded nascent proteins influences their ubiquitination patterns and leads to rapid proteasomal degradation.