Modification of cellular proteins with a small protein called ubiquitin has profound effects on their activities. Ubiquitin is covalently attached to lysine residues of acceptor proteins through the concerted action of E1 ubiquitin-activating enzyme, E2 ubiquitin-carrier proteins and E3 ligases. Mammalian cells contain a large number of E3 ligases, which determine the specificity of ubiquitination reactions. Recent studies have revealed that ubiquitination can be reversed by deubiquitinating enzymes that release ubiquitin monomers from modified proteins. Signalling networks that control inflammation are tightly regulated by a multitude of ubiquitination and deubiquitination reactions. This article begins by summarising current understanding of these pathways at a molecular level, and then focuses on the importance of ubiquitination and deubiquitination during the regulation of the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-κB. Finally, the potential for ubiquitin modifications to be targeted by novel classes of anti-inflammatory drugs is discussed.

A sequence motif that is Similar to Ubiquitin (SUb) has been identified in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ubiquitin-specific protease Ubp6. SUb is conserved in all known Ubp6 homologues from a spectrum of eukaryotic species and is also present in a group of hypothetical proteins of unknown function (Unk1-3) present in sequence databases. An N-terminal deletion mutant of Ubp6 that lacks SUb is still capable of cleaving α-linked ubiquitin fusions, suggesting that SUb forms a separate domain to the catalytic core of Ubp6 and demonstrating that it is not required for in vitro cleavage activity. A homology model of the 78 N-terminal amino acids of human Ubp6, based on the known fold of ubiquitin, is presented. In human Ubp6, SUb shares only 20% sequence identity with ubiquitin. Even weaker similarity occurs between S. cerevisiae SUb and ubiquitin. The homology model supports a ubiquitin-like fold for SUb and suggests that two conserved Lys residues, corresponding to Lys48 and Lys63 of ubiquitin, are functionally important.