Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P62988 (Ubiquitin)
 4,326 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In the present study, we demonstrate that a human homologue of Ufd2p (a yeast protein that catalyses the formation of long polyubiquitin chains, and is implicated in responses to environmental stress), UFD2 (ubiquitin fusion degradation protein-2), is cleaved during apoptosis induced by multiple stimuli, including UVB irradiation, Fas ligation, staurosporine treatment and cytotoxic lymphocyte granule-induced death. Caspase 6 and granzyme B efficiently cleave UFD2 [k(cat)/K(m)=(4-5) x 10(4) M(-1) x s(-1)] at Asp(123), whereas caspases 3 and 7 cleave UFD2 approx. 10-fold less efficiently immediately upstream at Asp(109). Thus UFD2 is added to the growing list of proteins with closely spaced caspase and granzyme B cleavage sites, suggesting the presence of a previously unrecognized, conserved motif. Both cleavage sites are contained and conserved within a novel 300-amino-acid N-terminal domain present in apparent UFD2 orthologues in mice and zebrafish, but absent in all UFD2 family members in lower eukaryotes. Full-length recombinant UFD2 exhibited ubiquitin-protein ligase ('E3')-like ubiquitination activity in vitro, but this activity was abolished in recombinant UFD2 truncated at the granzyme B/caspase 6 cleavage site. Cleavage of UFD2 by caspases or granzyme B within this putative regulatory N-terminal domain might have important functional consequences within the apoptotic cascade.
 ...
PMID:The human homologue of the yeast polyubiquitination factor Ufd2p is cleaved by caspase 6 and granzyme B during apoptosis. 1180 88

Selective protein degradation by the 26 S proteasome usually requires a polyubiquitin chain attached to the protein substrate by three classes of enzymes: a ubiquitin-activating enzyme (E1), a ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (E2), and a ubiquitin ligase (E3). This reaction can produce different polyubiquitin chains that, depending on size and linkage type, can provide distinct intracellular signals. Interestingly, polyubiquitination is sometimes regulated by additional conjugation factors, called E4s (polyubiquitin chain conjugation factors). Yeast UFD2 (ubiquitin fusion degradation protein-2), the first E4 to be described, binds to the ubiquitin moieties of preformed conjugates and catalyses ubiquitin-chain elongation together with E1, E2, and E3. Recent studies have illustrated that the E4 enzyme UFD2 co-operates with an orchestra of ubiquitin-binding factors in an escort pathway to transfer and deliver polyubiquitinated substrates to the 26 S proteasome. Here we propose a model in which E4-dependent polyubiquitination pathways are modulated by different ubiquitin-binding proteins, using ataxin-3 as an example.
 ...
PMID:Orchestra for assembly and fate of polyubiquitin chains. 1625 Aug 94