Ubiquitin is a highly conserved nuclear and cytoplasmic protein that has a major role in targeting cellular proteins for degradation by the 26S proteosome. It is also involved in the maintenance of chromatin structure, the regulation of gene expression, and the stress response. Ubiquitin is synthesized as a precursor protein consisting of either polyubiquitin chains or a single ubiquitin moiety fused to an unrelated protein. This gene encodes a fusion protein consisting of ubiquitin at the N-terminus and ribosomal protein L40 at the C-terminus, a C-terminal extension protein (CEP). Multiple processed pseudogenes derived from this gene are present in the genome.[2]
Clinical significance
The cell's ribosomal protein eL40 (rpL40), a part of the large 60S subunit. rpL40 is used by certain RNA viruses to translate messenger RNAs (mRNAs) into proteins while few host mRNAs require rpL40. Hence targeting this protein may provide a means to combat viral infections with minimum side effects to the host.[3]
References
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Baker RT, Board PG (1992). "The human ubiquitin/52-residue ribosomal protein fusion gene subfamily (UbA52) is composed primarily of processed pseudogenes". Genomics. 14 (2): 520–2. doi:10.1016/S0888-7543(05)80258-7. PMID1330885.
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Lund PK, Moats-Staats BM, Simmons JG, et al. (1985). "Nucleotide sequence analysis of a cDNA encoding human ubiquitin reveals that ubiquitin is synthesized as a precursor". J. Biol. Chem. 260 (12): 7609–13. PMID2581967.
Cross SH, Charlton JA, Nan X, Bird AP (1994). "Purification of CpG islands using a methylated DNA binding column". Nat. Genet. 6 (3): 236–44. doi:10.1038/ng0394-236. PMID8012384.
Cook WJ, Jeffrey LC, Kasperek E, Pickart CM (1994). "Structure of tetraubiquitin shows how multiubiquitin chains can be formed". J. Mol. Biol. 236 (2): 601–9. doi:10.1006/jmbi.1994.1169. PMID8107144.
Vadlamudi RK, Joung I, Strominger JL, Shin J (1996). "p62, a phosphotyrosine-independent ligand of the SH2 domain of p56lck, belongs to a new class of ubiquitin-binding proteins". J. Biol. Chem. 271 (34): 20235–7. doi:10.1074/jbc.271.34.20235. PMID8702753.
Bonaldo MF, Lennon G, Soares MB (1997). "Normalization and subtraction: two approaches to facilitate gene discovery". Genome Res. 6 (9): 791–806. doi:10.1101/gr.6.9.791. PMID8889548.
Kenmochi N, Kawaguchi T, Rozen S, et al. (1998). "A map of 75 human ribosomal protein genes". Genome Res. 8 (5): 509–23. doi:10.1101/gr.8.5.509. PMID9582194.
2j7q: CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF THE UBIQUITIN-SPECIFIC PROTEASE ENCODED BY MURINE CYTOMEGALOVIRUS TEGUMENT PROTEIN M48 IN COMPLEX WITH A UBQUITIN-BASED SUICIDE SUBSTRATE