Overview:

SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier) is a ubiquitin-like protein involved in post-translational modification of critical cellular factors regulating protein localization, transcription, DNA repair or cell cycle progression (1).In mammals three different SUMO molecules are involved in protein SUMOylation: SUMO1, SUMO2 and SUMO3 (2). In response to general cellular insults, such as heat shock, oxidative stress or the use of proteasome inhibitors, the level of protein SUMOylation notably increases (3). SUMO interacting motifs, or SIMs, can interact non-covalently with SUMO. Clustered SIMs efficiently interact with polySUMO chains by increasing the binding capacity for SUMO, since the affinity of an isolated SIM for SUMO is usually low.SUBE1 is GST-fusion protein carrying tandem repeats of SIM2 and SIM3 motifs of RNF4 engineered to generate a high affinity system to capture SUMOylated proteins (1) from cells/tissues, facilitating the study of post-translational mechanisms that connect signaling cascades with effector functions. They may be useful for the development and implementation of novel screens for biomarkers and have potential for diagnostic use.

References:

1. Silva-Ferrada E. et al. Analysis of SUMOylated proteins using SUMO-traps. Sci Rep 3. 2013,1690. 2. Sarge K. D. et al. SUMO and its role in human diseases. Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2011, 288:167–183.3. Golebiowski F.et al. System-wide changes to SUMO modifications in response to heat shock. Science signaling. 2009, 2(72) ra24.