Recent Highlights: Onco Viral Exploitation of the SUMO System
Domenico Mattoscio, Alessandro Medda and Susanna Chiocca
from: SUMOylation and Ubiquitination: Current and Emerging Concepts (Edited by: Van G. Wilson). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2019) Pages: 35-50.
Abstract
Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)ylation is a crucial post-translational modification that controls functions of a wide collection of proteins and biological processes. Hence, given its pleiotropic role, viruses have developed many approaches to usurp SUMO conjugation to exploit the cellular host environment for their own benefit. Consistently, cancer cells also frequently impact on SUMO to force cellular transformation, underlying the importance of SUMO in health and diseases. Therefore, after a brief introduction to the multistep SUMOylation pathway, in this chapter we will focus our attention on several examples of strategies adopted by oncogenic viruses to hijack SUMOylation in order to promote infection, persistence and malignant transformation of host cells.
