Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus K-Rta exhibits SUMO-targeting ubiquitin ligase (STUbL) like activity and is essential for viral reactivation.

ABSTRACT: The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) is a protein that regulates a wide variety of cellular processes by covalent attachment of SUMO moieties to a diverse array of target proteins. Sumoylation also plays an important role in the replication of many viruses. Previously, we showed that Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) encodes a SUMO-ligase, K-bZIP, which catalyzes sumoylation of host and viral proteins. We report here that this virus also encodes a gene that functions as a SUMO-targeting ubiquitin-ligase (STUbL) which preferentially targets sumoylated proteins for degradation. K-Rta, the major transcriptional factor which turns on the entire lytic cycle, was recently found to have ubiquitin ligase activity toward a selected set of substrates. We show in this study that K-Rt

SUBMITTER: Izumiya Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3749962 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature