CRC 858 B14 - New Protein Chemical Tools for the Analysis of Cooperative Effects within Protein Interactions mediated by Ubiquitin-like Modifiers

Basic data for this project

Description

Posttranslational modification of a substrate protein with the ubiquitin-like modifier SUMO equips the substrate protein with an additional protein interaction interface. Cooperative binding of a partner protein at each unit of the protein-SUMO conjugate results in the re-wiring of the cellular protein network. We will investigate both the orientation-dependent cooperativity and allosteric cooperativity of the protein binding interfaces and exploit these effects to identify new binding partners. Using new protein chemistry tools developed in this project as well as predictions from computational simulation provided in the research consortium, we will focus on the recognition of SUMO chains and the formation of the E3-ligase complexes relevant for SUMO transfer.