Cell Division

official impact factor 4.09

Open Access Highly Access Review

SUMO: regulating the regulator

Guillaume Bossis1,2 and Frauke Melchior2*

Author Affiliations

1 Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier, CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, 34293 - Montpellier Cedex 05, France

2 Dept. of Biochemie I, University Goettingen, Humboldt Allee 23, 37073 Goettingen, Germany

For all author emails, please log on.

Cell Division 2006, 1:13 doi:10.1186/1747-1028-1-13

Published: 29 June 2006

Abstract

Post-translational modifiers of the SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier) family have emerged as key regulators of protein function and fate. While the past few years have seen an enormous increase in knowledge on SUMO enzymes, substrates, and consequences of modification, regulation of SUMO conjugation is far from being understood. This brief review will provide an overview on recent advances concerning (i) the interplay between sumoylation and other post-translational modifications at the level of individual targets and (ii) global regulation of SUMO conjugation and deconjugation.