Description
The enzymes of the ubiquitylation pathway play a pivotal role in a number of cellular processes including the regulated and targeted proteasome-dependent degradation of substrate proteins. Three classes of enzymes are involved in the process of ubiquitylation; activating enzymes (E1s), conjugating enzymes (E2s) and protein ligases (E3s). Smad-Specific E3 Ubiquitin Protein Ligase 1 (SMURF2) is a member of the E3 protein ligase family and cloning of the human gene was first described by Kavsak et al. (2000). SMURF2 is a HECT domain ubiquitin E3 ligase that has been shown to regulate cell polarity, senescence and tumor suppression (Blank et al., 2012)