With Ubp6, degradation of a ubiquitinated protein is delayed.
FINLEY/ELSEVIER
The traditional view of the proteasome was, says Finley, “like a pencil sharpener,” mindlessly chewing away at ubiquitinated proteins. The characterization of one proteasome-associated factor now changes that view. Ubp6, the team shows, actually delays the rate of protein destruction. Proteasomes purified from yeast Ubp6 deletion mutants degraded ubiquitinated cyclin B protein faster than did those from their wild-type counterparts.
Ubp6 is a deubiquitinase, but this activity was not responsible for delaying degradation. Inhibiting its deubiquitinase active site did not speed up degradation. Ubp6 also needed to be bound to the proteasome to delay degradation, which would not be necessary if the delay tactic was simply to prevent targeting...
