Structure of the HECT:ubiquitin complex and its role in ubiquitin chain elongation

Several mechanisms have been proposed for the synthesis of substrate‐linked ubiquitin chains. HECT ligases directly catalyse protein ubiquitination and have been found to non‐covalently interact with ubiquitin. We report crystal structures of the Nedd4 HECT domain, alone and in complex with ubiquitin, which show a new binding mode involving two surfaces on ubiquitin and both subdomains of the HECT N‐lobe. The structures suggest a model for HECT‐to‐substrate ubiquitin transfer, in which the growing chain on the substrate is kept close to the catalytic cysteine to promote processivity. Mutational analysis highlights differences between the processes of substrate polyubiquitination and self‐ubiquitination.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  EMBO Reports

• Publication date

  2011-03-11

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/embor.2011.21PMID 21399620PMCID 3077247
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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