Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme E2E1 (UBE2E1)

The modification of proteins with ubiquitin is an important cellular mechanism for targeting abnormal or short-lived proteins for degradation. Ubiquitination involves at least three classes of enzymes: ubiquitin-activating enzymes, or E1s, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, or E2s, and ubiquitin-protein ligases, or E3s. This gene encodes a member of the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been found for this gene.The deduced 193-amino acid UBCH6 protein shows the highest sequence similarity to members of the UBCH5 E2 subfamily, with 74% similarity to UBCH5. UBCH6 appears unique among these E2s in containing an N-terminal extension of approximately 40 amino acids. UBCH6 did not efficiently mediate UBE3A (E6AP)-dependent ubiquitination in an in vitro assay.