Fig. 8: TAOK2 interacts with TRIM4, a known enhancer of RIG-I-dependent innate immune responses.

a Scatter plot showing the log₂ fold change enrichment of proteins following affinity purification of rat TAOK2 as compared to the combined control (CTRL) baits (PGAM5 and EGFP) in mock (x-axis) and poly(I:C) stimulated (y-axis) HEK293T cells. Significantly enriched proteins were identified by a two-sided Student’s t-tests (permutation-based FDR <0.05), further filtered to show a log₂ fold change of ≥1.5, and colored in blue (only significant in mock), orange (only significant upon poly(I:C) stimulation), red (significant in mock and upon poly(I:C) stimulation), or black (nonsignificant or significant but a log₂ fold change <1.5). Node size corresponds to the −log₁₀ p value of a given bait versus control comparison and the node size for red-colored proteins is averaged between the two TAOK2 versus CTRL comparisons for mock and poly(I:C) stimulation. b STRING enrichment of rat TAOK2 interacting proteins in mock and poly(I:C) stimulated cells identified a functionally connected ubiquitin ligase complex, including TRIM4, an enhancer of type-I IFN responses by mediating RIG-I ubiquitination. c Scatter plot comparing the log₂ fold change enrichment of proteins following affinity purification of wild-type rat TAOK2 (x-axis) versus rat TAOK2-R702C (y-axis) in poly(I:C) stimulated HEK293T cells. Significantly enriched proteins were identified by a two-sided Student’s t-tests (permutation-based FDR <0.05), further filtered to show a log₂ fold change of ≥1.5, and colored in yellow (only significant in wild-type TAOK2 with a log₂ fold change difference ≥1 between wild-type and R702C-mutated TAOK2 affinity purifications), orange (only significant in TAOK2-R702C with a log₂ fold change difference ≥1 between R702C-mutated and wild-type TAOK2 affinity purifications), red (significant in both wild-type and R702C-mutant TAOK2), or black (nonsignificant, significant but a log₂ fold change <1.5, or significant and a log₂ fold change ≥1.5 but an absolute log₂ fold change difference <1 between wild-type and R702C-mutated TAOK2 affinity purifications). Node size corresponds to the absolute log₂ fold change difference of a given protein between wild-type and R702C-mutated TAOK2 affinity purifications. Log₂ fold change difference values for each protein were normalized by the log₂ fold change difference of TAOK2 to account for differences in enrichment efficiencies between the two TAOK2 variants.