Abstract

Proteasomes are ATP-dependent, multisubunit proteases that are found in all eukaryotes and archaea and some bacteria. In eukaryotes, the small protein ubiquitin is covalently attached in a post-translational manner to proteins that are targeted for proteasomal degradation. Despite the presence of proteasomes in many prokaryotes, ubiquitin or other post-translational protein modifiers were presumed to be absent from these organisms. Recently a prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein, Pup, was found to target proteins for proteolysis by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteasome. The discovery of this ubiquitin-like modifier opens up the possibility that other bacteria may also have small post-translational protein tagging systems, with the ability to affect cellular processes.

Author affiliations

1. K. Heran Darwin is at the Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue MSB 236, New York, New York 10016, USA.
   Email: heran.darwin@med.nyu.edu

Published online 1 June 2009

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