Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 16, Issue 10, 2016

Sumoylation, a post-translational modification discovered over a decade ago, turns out to be a very important regulatory mechanism mediating multiple cellular processes. Recent studies from our laboratory and others also revealed that it plays a crucial role in regulating both differentiation and pathogenesis of the ocular lens. This review will summarize these progresses.

Sumoylation is a reversible post-translational modification that conjugates small peptide SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) to a target protein. Global protein sumoylation and expression of components in sumoylation pathway were recently found to be altered in the process of organismal aging. In addition, key factors controlling cellular senescence are known to be sumoylated. This review will summarize current informati Read More

Heart is an extremely important organ, and cardiovascular disorders emerge as primary life-threatening disease in human life. Aberrant post-translational modifications (PTMs) on cardiac proteins are closely correlated with pathological abnormalities in heart. SUMOylation, one of the most prevalent PTMs with thousands of substrates throughout the cell including critical subcellular organelles, has been shown to precisely fin Read More

CREB is an ubiquitous transcription factor regulating diverse cellular responses. Its phosphorylation at S133 is an essential event for its activation in both nervous and visual systems. The activated CREB is implicated in the regulation of development, protection, learning, memory and plasticity in the nerve system. Moreover, sumoylation, an important post-translational modification of protein, plays a key role in sustaining CREB ac Read More

Since the discovery of SUMOs (small ubiquitin-like modifiers) over 20 years ago, sumoylation has recently emerged as an important posttranslational modification involved in almost all aspects of cellular physiology. In neurons, sumoylation dynamically modulates protein function and consequently plays an important role in neuronal maturation, synapse formation and plasticity. Thus, the dysfunction of sumoylation Read More

Sumoylation is a covalent protein posttranslational modification that conjugates the small ubiquitin-like peptide SUMO to substrate. Sumoylation is critically implicated in multiple biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, senescence and apoptosis, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that dysregulation of sumoylation has been implicated in tumorigenesis and different types of cancer were found to be addict Read More

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) such as phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, ubiquitylation, sumoylation are important mechanisms to regulate functions of different proteins. Among various PTMs, phosphorylation, discovered about 60 years ago, is probably the most common modification. In contrast, sumoylation, identified about two decades ago is emerging as a key regulatory mechanism modulating protein Read More

α-Crystallins, initially identified as the structural proteins of the ocular lens, belong to the small heat shock protein family. They play significant roles in maintaining the lens transparency and preventing protein aggregation. α-Crystallins exist in two isoforms: αA and αB, and they display differential tissue distribution. Their mutations are implicated in several human diseases including cardiac myopathies, neurodegenerative diseases, Read More

Purpose: The protein phosphatase-2A (PP-2A) is one of the most important serine/threonine phosphatases in eukaryotes. The holoenzyme of PP-2A consists of three subunits: a scaffold A subunit, a catalytic C subunit and a regulatory B subunit. While both A and C subunits are coded by two different genes, the B subunits exist in 26 or more isoforms which are encoded by at least 15 different genes. Previous studies have sho Read More