{"id":32815,"date":"2025-12-10T08:55:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=32815"},"modified":"2025-12-10T08:55:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:10:39","slug":"scientists-uncover-key-role-of-sumoylation-in-plant-cell-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/scientists-uncover-key-role-of-sumoylation-in-plant-cell-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists uncover key role of SUMOylation in plant cell division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"1f2d23\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #1f2d23;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32816 not-transparent\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-675x506.webp 675w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-150x113.webp 150w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>AI-Generated Image<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BERLIN \u2013<\/strong> Researchers at Germany\u2019s Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) have discovered that a protein modification process known as SUMOylation is critical for proper cell division in plants, shedding light on how genetic information is faithfully transmitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study focused on KINETOCHORE NULL2 (\u03b1KNL2), a protein essential for loading the centromeric histone H3 (CENH3) and forming the kinetochore, the structure that ensures chromosomes are correctly segregated during cell division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe identified that \u03b1KNL2 is modified by SUMO proteins and demonstrated how this SUMOylation affects its function,\u201d said Manikandan Kalidass, first author of the study. Using biochemical and computational methods, the team mapped SUMO attachment sites in the protein\u2019s C-terminal region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When these sites were altered, preventing SUMOylation, the model plant <em>Arabidopsis thaliana<\/em> showed growth and fertility defects. At the cellular level, the disruption weakened \u03b1KNL2\u2019s interaction with CENH3, destabilised the kinetochore and led to chromosome segregation errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe SUMO sites on \u03b1KNL2 are crucial for its normal activity,\u201d said Dr. Inna Lermontova, who heads IPK\u2019s \u201cKinetochore Biology\u201d group. \u201cOur results provide a better understanding of how SUMOylation regulates protein function during chromosome segregation. And this could have implications for similar mechanisms in other eukaryotic systems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BERLIN \u2013 Researchers at Germany\u2019s Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) have discovered that a protein modification process known as SUMOylation is critical for proper cell division in plants, shedding light on how genetic information is faithfully transmitted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",768,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-675x506.webp",675,506,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",750,563,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",750,563,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",768,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification.webp",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-768x570.webp",768,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-600x576.webp",600,576,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-600x576.webp",600,576,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-640x576.webp",640,576,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUMOylation-protin-modification-150x113.webp",150,113,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/category\/news\/research\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32817,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32815\/revisions\/32817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}