The small ubiquitin-related modifier protein SUMO-1 belongs to the ubiquitin-like protein family, which are synthesized as precursor proteins that undergo processing before conjugation to target proteins. However, SUMO and ubiquitin differ with respect to targeting. Ubiquitination predominantly targets proteins for degradation, whereas sumoylation targets proteins to a variety of cellular processes, including nuclear transport, transcriptional regulation, apoptosis, and protein stability. SUMO-1 utilizes homologues of the E1 and E2 enzymes for conjugation to proteins, which include IkBα, MDM2, p53, PML, and RanGap1. AOS1 is homologous to the N-terminal half of E1 and UBA2 is homologous to the C-terminal half of E1. These proteins form a heterodimer that activates SUMO-1.
