Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (2020) 35: 59-84. Roles of Ubiquitination and SUMOylation in DNA Damage Response Siyuan Su1,2, Yanqiong Zhang1,2 and Pengda Liu1,2* 1Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Te University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. 2Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Te University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. *Correspondence:
[email protected] htps://doi.org/10.21775/cimb.035.059 Abstract that genome instability leads to human disorders Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like modifers, such as including cancer, understanding detailed molecu- SUMO, exert distinct physiological functions by lar mechanisms for ubiquitin and SUMO-related conjugating to protein substrates. Ubiquitination or regulations in DNA damage response may provide SUMOylation of protein substrates determine the novel insights into therapeutic modalities to treat fate of modifed proteins, including proteasomal human diseases associated with deregulated DNA degradation, cellular re-localization, alternations in damage response. binding partners and serving as a protein-binding platform, in a ubiquitin or SUMO linkage-depend- ent manner. DNA damage occurs constantly in Introduction living organisms but is also repaired by distinct DNA encodes for inheritable genetic information tightly controlled mechanisms including homolo- that is not only essential to exert normal cellular gous recombination, non-homologous end joining, function but also indispensable to maintain the inter-strand crosslink repair, nucleotide excision human society. Tus, DNA should be stable while repair and base excision repair. On sensing damaged versatile. Although certain genetic changes are DNA, a ubiquitination/SUMOylation landscape is permissible to drive evolution (usually at a low established to recruit DNA damage repair factors.