SUMO-GFP Protease Substrate Products

Description

Recombinant Yeast SUMO Protease ULP1 (Ubiquitin-like-specific protease 1), commonly known as SUMO protease 1, is essential in the processing and deconjugation of a small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), SMT3, from targeted proteins in the SUMO pathway of yeast where it plays an essential role in the cell cycle (1, 2). ULP1 is a 621 amino acid protein from the peptidase C48 family of cysteine proteases and contains a conserved C-terminal protease fold domain and a weakly conserved N-terminal domain (1, 3). The catalytic site with a conserved cysteine protease structure and catalytic triad is located in a shallow and narrow cleft that creates limited access to the active site through the constricted hydrophobic tunnel and confers high specificity to the enzyme (3). ULP1 cleaves the C-terminus of SUMO to a mature form after a glycine-glycine pair. Use of SUMO as a fusion for recombinant proteins with subsequent processing by ULP1 in E. coli was explored due to the demand to find improved methods for recombinant production of proteins for use in academia and industry (4). SUMO as a fusion partner was found to enhance expression in E. coli for a diverse population of protein targets and unlike other common fusion partners SUMO could serve as a chaperone for correct folding such that the target would remain soluble after the SUMO protein was removed (4). In addition, ULP1 was found to be capable of cleaving with high efficiency a range of targets specifically at the SUMO site under a broad variety of reaction conditions (5, 6). Use of SUMO fusion with ULP1 cleavage is a tool that allows for successful recombinant protein production with a native N-terminal sequence (5) providing significant benefits over other fusion and cleavage methods being used (4,7-10). Use of recombinant SUMO fusions with subsequent ULP1 cleavage is a beneficial tool for recombinant protein production in both academic research and industrial biotechnology (4, 5, 11).

Bioinformatics

Uniprot	NP_015305.1
Alternate Names	EC 3.4.22.68 NIB1 SUMO Protease ULP1