SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR

QBI/GEDD

Friday, November 13 at 11:30am

Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 11:15

Christopher D. Lima

Structural Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10021

Structure and Function in the SUMO Pathway

Many signal transduction pathways rely on reversible chemical modifications to relay information within and across cells. Covalent modification of protein substrates by ubiquitin (Ub) and ubiquitin-like (Ubl) modifiers such SUMO and Nedd8 mediate signal transduction in pathways that contribute to differentiation, apoptosis, the cell cycle, and responses to stress. SUMO conjugation shares many mechanistic similarities with the ubiquitin conjugation system and both utilize a cascade of factors that include E1 activating enzymes, E2 conjugating enzymes, and E3 ligases that work in concert to attach the Ub/Ubl modifier to substrate lysine residues. I will present the results of recent structural and biochemical studies that address SUMO activation and specificity during E2 and E3 mediated SUMO conjugation.

Helen Geiger

Administrative Assistant

Quantitative Biology Initiative/

Gene Expression in Development & Disease

Michigan State University

502B Biochemistry Building

East Lansing, MI 48824

Phone: (517) 432-9895

Fax: (517) 353-9334

E-mail: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]

Web: http://qbmi.msu.edu

http://www.bch.msu.edu/GEDD/index.htm