In acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), the promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) protein is fused to the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR). This disease can be treated effectively with arsenic, which induces PML modification by small ubiquitin-like modifiers (SUMO) and proteasomal degradation. Here we demonstrate that the RING-domain-containing ubiquitin E3 ligase, RNF4 (also known as SNURF), targets poly-SUMO-modified proteins for degradation mediated by ubiquitin. RNF4 depletion or proteasome inhibition led to accumulation of mixed, polyubiquitinated, poly-SUMO chains. PML protein accumulated in RNF4-depleted cells and was ubiquitinated by RNF4 in a SUMO-dependent fashion in vitro. In the absence of RNF4, arsenic failed to induce degradation of PML and SUMO-modified PML accumulated in the nucleus. These results demonstrate that poly-SUMO chains can act as discrete signals from mono-SUMOylation, in this case targeting a poly-SUMOylated substrate for ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis.

SUMMARYUbiquitin modification is mediated by a large family of specificity determining ubiquitin E3 ligases. To facilitate ubiquitin transfer, RING E3 ligases bind both substrate and a ubiquitin E2 conjugating enzyme linked to ubiquitin via a thioester bond, but the mechanism of transfer has remained elusive. Here we report the crystal structure of the dimeric RING of RNF4 in complex with E2 (UbcH5a) linked by an isopeptide bond to ubiquitin. While the E2 contacts a single protomer of the RING, ubiquitin is folded back onto the E2 by contacts from both RING protomers. The C-terminal tail of ubiquitin is locked into an active site groove on the E2 by an intricate network of interactions, resulting in changes at the E2 active site. This arrangement is primed for catalysis as it can deprotonate the incoming substrate lysine residue and stabilise the consequent tetrahedral transition state intermediate.

Conjugation of the small ubiquitin-like modifier SUMO-1/SMT3C/Sentrin-1 to proteins in vitro is dependent on a heterodimeric E1 (SAE1/SAE2) and an E2 (Ubc9). Although SUMO-2/SMT3A/Sentrin-3 and SUMO-3/SMT3B/Sentrin-2 share 50% sequence identity with SUMO-1, they are functionally distinct. Inspection of the SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 sequences indicates that they both contain the sequence KXE, which represents the consensus SUMO modification site. As a consequence SAE1/ SAE2 and Ubc9 catalyze the formation of polymeric chains of SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 on protein substrates in vitro, and SUMO-2 chains are detected in vivo. The ability to form polymeric chains is not shared by SUMO-1, and although all SUMO species use the same conjugation machinery, modification by SUMO-1 and SUMO-2/-3 may have distinct functional consequences.The small ubiquitin-like modifier SUMO-1 1 (also known as SMT3C, Sentrin, GMP1, UBL1, and PIC1) is a member of the ubiquitin-like protein family (1). SUMO-1 is known to be covalently conjugated to a variety of cellular substrates via a three-step enzymatic pathway analogous to that of ubiquitin conjugation. The E1-like enzymes for both SUMO-1 and the yeast homologue Smt3p exist as heterodimers known as SAE1/ SAE2 and Uba2p/Aos1p, respectively (2-5). In the first step the SAE1/SAE2 heterodimer utilizes ATP to adenylate the C-terminal glycine of SUMO-1. Formation of a thioester bond between the C-terminal glycine of SUMO-1 and a cysteine residue in SAE2 is accompanied by the release of AMP. The second step is a transesterification reaction, which transfers SUMO-1 from the E1 to a cysteine residue within the SUMO-specific E2-conjugating enzyme (Cys 93 in Ubc9). In the third step, Ubc9 catalyzes the formation of an isopeptide bond between the C terminus of SUMO-1 and the ⑀-amino group of lysine in the target protein. In contrast to the ubiquitin conjugation pathway no activity equivalent to an E3 ligase is required for SUMO-1 conjugation in vitro (2, 4), suggesting that the specificity for target proteins is conferred by Ubc9 itself or the Ubc9⅐SUMO-1 thioester complex. This is supported by the observations that almost all SUMO-1-conjugated proteins bind Ubc9 in two-hybrid assays, and the acceptor lysine residues on target proteins appear to exist within the consensus motif KXE (where represents a large hydrophobic amino acid, and X represents any amino acid) (6 -8). Furthermore, SUMO-1 is thought not to form SUMO-1-SUMO-1 polymers, which are characteristic of ubiquitination.Unlike the majority of ubiquitinated proteins, acceptors of SUMO-1 modifications are not targeted for degradation. In fact, in the case of the transcriptional inhibitor IB␣ the target lysine for SUMO-1 modification is the same as that of ubiquitin conjugation, thus blocking ubiquitination at that residue and stabilizing the protein (8). Transcriptional activity of specific proteins appears to be affected by SUMO-1 modification. For example, conjugation at a single site in the C terminus of p53 activates its transcriptional response (9, 10)...