The post-translational modification of cellular proteins by Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) plays a role in a diverse range of biological processes including nuclear protein targeting, formation of sub-nuclear complexes, regulation of transcriptional activities, control of protein stability, chromosome segregation, recovery from checkpoint arrest, DNA damage response and meiosis.
SUMOylation of substrate proteins takes place in a manner analogous to that of the ubiquitin conjugation system, utilising E1, E2 and E3 enzymes in an ATP dependent process and often requires a short sequence containing the consensus