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“Without Ub I am nothing”: NEMO as a multifunctional player in ubiquitin-mediated control of NF-κB activation

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Abstract

Ubiquitination has emerged over the years as the most sophisticated way to modify proteins to affect their fate and function. In particular, it has been reported to be instrumental in regulating several steps of the NF-κB signalling pathway which controls inflammation, immunity, adhesion and cell survival. Integrating ubiquitination into NF-κB activation requires the regulatory subunit of IKK, NEMO, which not only displays affinity for polyubiquitin chains, but is also posttranslationally modified by a complex set of reactions involving ubiquitin. Here, we examine how studies of the NEMO/ubiquitin relationship have provided novel insights into the IKK activation process and have uncovered molecular mechanisms that should represent in the future attractive targets for specifically modulating NF-κB function.

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Acknowledgments

We apologize to all colleagues whose papers could not be cited owing to space limitations. Work in G.C.’s laboratory is supported by Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR) and Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC).

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  1. INSERM U781, Tour Lavoisier, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades and Université Paris-Descartes, 149, rue de Sèvres, 75015, Paris, France

    Jérémie Gautheron & Gilles Courtois

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Correspondence to Gilles Courtois.

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Gautheron, J., Courtois, G. “Without Ub I am nothing”: NEMO as a multifunctional player in ubiquitin-mediated control of NF-κB activation. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 67, 3101–3113 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-010-0404-9

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