1. Academic Validation
  2. The SUMO-specific protease SENP5 is required for cell division

The SUMO-specific protease SENP5 is required for cell division

  • Mol Cell Biol. 2006 Jun;26(12):4489-98. doi: 10.1128/MCB.02301-05.
Alessandra Di Bacco 1 Jian Ouyang Hsiang-Ying Lee Andre Catic Hidde Ploegh Grace Gill
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, 77 Ave. Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract

Posttranslational modification of substrates by the small ubiquitin-like modifier, SUMO, regulates diverse biological processes, including transcription, DNA repair, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, and chromosome segregation. SUMOylation is reversible, and several mammalian homologs of the yeast SUMO-specific protease Ulp1, termed SENPs, have been identified. We demonstrate here that SENP5, a previously uncharacterized Ulp1 homolog, has SUMO C-terminal hydrolase and SUMO isopeptidase activities. In contrast to other SENPs, the C-terminal catalytic domain of SENP5 preferentially processed SUMO-3 compared to SUMO-1 precursors and preferentially removed SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 from SUMO-modified RanGAP1 in vitro. In cotransfection assays, SENP5 preferentially reduced high-molecular-weight conjugates of SUMO-2 compared to SUMO-1 in vivo. Full-length SENP5 localized to the nucleolus. Deletion of the noncatalytic N-terminal domain led to loss of nucleolar localization and increased de-SUMOylation activity in vivo. Knockdown of SENP5 by RNA interference resulted in increased levels of SUMO-1 and SUMO-2/3 conjugates, inhibition of cell proliferation, defects in nuclear morphology, and appearance of binucleate cells, revealing an essential role for SENP5 in mitosis and/or cytokinesis. These findings establish SENP5 as a SUMO-specific protease required for cell division and suggest that mechanisms involving both the catalytic and noncatalytic domains determine the distinct substrate specificities of the mammalian SUMO-specific proteases.

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