Structure of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9 displays significant differences with other ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes which may reflect its specificity for sumo rather than ubiquitin

The three-dimensional structure of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9 (UbcB) has been obtained to a resolution of 2.8 Angstrom by molecular replacement followed by a combination of automated refinement and graphical intervention. Diffraction data were recorded on a single crystal in space group P4(3) with cell dimensions a = b = 73.9, c = 42.9 Angstrom. The final model has an R factor of 21.3% for all data to 2.8 Angstrom. Only the N-terminal methionine, a two-residue N-terminal extension and a four-residue loop are not located by the final electron-density map. Ubc9 is now known to be the first sumo, a new ubiquitin-like protein, conjugating enzyme and does not conjugate ubiquitin. The structure of Ubc9 shows important differences compared with the structures of known ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. At the N-terminal helix, the structural and sequence alignments are out of register by one amino acid giving Ubc9 a different recognition surface compared to ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. This is coupled to a profound change in the electrostatic surface of the molecular face remote from the catalytic site. These differences may be important in recognition of other proteins in the Sumo conjugation pathway. The catalytic cysteine in UbcB has a positively charged lip and a negatively charged ridge nearby. Both these features seem confined to sumo-conjugating enzymes, and a sequence alignment of sumo and ubiquitin suggests how these might play a role in sumo/ubiquitin discrimination.