Ubiquitin pathway E3 ligases are an important component conferring specificity and regulation in ubiquitin attachment to substrate proteins. The Arabidopsis thaliana RING (Really Interesting New Gene) domain-containing proteins BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 are essential for normal seed germination and post-germination growth. Loss of either BRIZ1 (At2g42160) or BRIZ2 (At2g26000) results in a severe phenotype. Heterozygous parents produce progeny that segregate 3:1 for wild-type:growtharrested seedlings. Homozygous T-DNA insertion lines are recovered for BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 after introduction of a transgene containing the respective coding sequence, demonstrating that disruption of BRIZ1 or BRIZ2 in the T-DNA insertion lines is responsible for the observed phenotype. Both proteins have multiple predicted domains in addition to the RING domain as follows: a BRAP2 (BRCA1-Associated Protein 2), a ZnF UBP (Zinc Finger Ubiquitin Binding protein), and a coiled-coil domain. In vitro, both BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 are active as E3 ligases but only BRIZ2 binds ubiquitin. In vitro synthesized and purified recombinant BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 preferentially form heterooligomers rather than homo-oligomers, and the coiled-coil domain is necessary and sufficient for this interaction. BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 co-purify after expression in tobacco leaves, which also requires the coiled-coil domain. BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 coding regions with substitutions in the RING domain are inactive in vitro and, after introduction, fail to complement their respective mutant lines. In our current model, BRIZ1 and BRIZ2 together are required for formation of a functional ubiquitin E3 ligase in vivo, and this complex is required for germination and early seedling growth.The ubiquitin pathway is a protein modification pathway that regulates many processes such as cell cycle, signal transduction, translational regulation, and chromatin remodeling (1-4). This pathway utilizes three enzymes for attachment of ubiquitin to its target. An E1 (ubiquitin-activating enzyme) forms a thioester bond with ubiquitin in an ATP-dependent manner. E1 then passes the attached ubiquitin to an E2 (ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme), which also forms a thioester bond with ubiquitin. Subsequently, the E3, also called a ubiquitin ligase, either accepts this activated ubiquitin before transfer to the substrate or serves as a scaffold to bring the substrate and E2-ubiquitin together. After ubiquitin is linked to the substrate, additional ubiquitin moieties can be conjugated to the previously attached ubiquitin, forming polyubiquitin chains. Ubiquitinated proteins have a number of fates, with the most characterized being degradation by the proteasome (5-7). Additionally, nonproteasomal fates have been described (8 -10).In the ubiquitin pathway, the E3 is an important contributor to substrate specificity. Currently, there are ϳ1300 E3 ligases predicted in the annotated proteome of Arabidopsis thaliana, which includes ϳ480 RING-type E3 ligases (11-13). The RING domain, consisting of eight conserved cysteine or histidine residues...