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Unique binding interactions among Ubc9, SUMO and RanBP2 reveal a mechanism for SUMO paralog selection

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 12, pages 67–74 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The conjugation of small ubiquitin-like modifiers SUMO-1, SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 onto target proteins requires the concerted action of the specific E1-activating enzyme SAE1/SAE2, the E2-conjugating enzyme Ubc9, and an E3-like SUMO ligase. NMR chemical shift perturbation was used to identify the surface of Ubc9 that interacts with the SUMO ligase RanBP2. Unlike known ubiquitin E2-E3 interactions, RanBP2 binds to the β-sheet of Ubc9. Mutational disruption of Ubc9-RanBP2 binding affected SUMO-2 but not SUMO-1 conjugation to Sp100 and to a newly identified RanBP2 substrate, PML. RanBP2 contains a binding site specific for SUMO-1 but not SUMO-2, indicating that a Ubc9–SUMO-1 thioester could be recruited to RanBP2 via SUMO-1 in the absence of strong binding between Ubc9 and RanBP2. Thus we show that E2-E3 interactions are not conserved across the ubiquitin-like protein superfamily and identify a RanBP2-dependent mechanism for SUMO paralog–specific conjugation.

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Figure 1: Identification of the RanBP2-binding site on Ubc9.
Figure 2: RanBP2-binding-site mutants of Ubc9 strongly affect SUMO-2 but not SUMO-1 conjugation to Sp100.
Figure 3: Effect of RanBP2-binding-site mutations on Ubc9 conjugation activity using PML as substrate.
Figure 4: Deletion analysis of the RanBP2 internal repeat region.
Figure 5: Comparison of SUMO conjugation to Sp100 and PML with the depletion of SUMO in assays.
Figure 6: A model for SUMO selection by RanBP2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Kemp (University of St. Andrews) for help with RanBP2 binding studies. This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council, the Association for International Cancer Research (M.H.T. and R.T.H.) and US National Institutes of Health grant numbers GM 59887 and CA 94595 (Y.C.).

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  1. Suhkmann Kim

    Present address: Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan, 609–735, Korea

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, KY16 9ST, UK

    Michael H Tatham, Ellis Jaffray & Ronald T Hay

  2. Division of Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1450 East Duarte Road, Duarte, 91010, California, USA

    Suhkmann Kim, Jing Song & Yuan Chen

  3. Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1450 East Duarte Road, Duarte, 91010, California, USA

    Jing Song

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Correspondence to Ronald T Hay.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Gel filtration chromatographic analysis of RanBP2–Ubc9 mutant complexes. (PDF 1129 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Gel filtration chromatographic analysis of RanBP2–SUMO complexes. (PDF 907 kb)

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Tatham, M., Kim, S., Jaffray, E. et al. Unique binding interactions among Ubc9, SUMO and RanBP2 reveal a mechanism for SUMO paralog selection. Nat Struct Mol Biol 12, 67–74 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb878

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