title: Introduction to Sumoylation.
abstract: Reversible post-translational modification is a rapid and efficient system to control the activity of pre-existing proteins. Modifiers range from small chemical moieties, such as phosphate groups, to proteins themselves as the modifier. The patriarch of the protein modifiers is ubiquitin which plays a central role in protein degradation and protein targeting. Over the last 20 years, the ubiquitin family has expanded to include a variety of ubiquitin-related small modifier proteins that are all covalently attached to a lysine residue on target proteins via series of enzymatic reactions. Of these more recently discovered ubiquitin-like proteins, the SUMO family has gained prominence as a major regulatory component that impacts numerous aspects of cell growth, differentiation, and response to stress. Unlike ubiquitinylation which often leads to proteins turn over, sumoylation performs a variety of function such as altering protein stability, modulating protein trafficking, directing protein-protein interactions, and regulating protein activity. This chapter will introduce the basic properties of SUMO proteins and the general tenets of sumoylation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, 8447 HWY 47, Bryan, TX, 77807-1359, USA. wilson@medicine.tamhsc.edu.
authors.forename: Van G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008239:Lysine; D011487:Protein Conformation; D055550:Protein Stability; D021381:Protein Transport; D015398:Signal Transduction; D025841:Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D058207:Sumoylation
chemical_list: D025841:Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins; D008239:Lysine
keywords: SAE1/2; SENP; SUMO; SUMO Ligases; Ubc9