FASEB CONFERENCE ON UBIQUITIN AND PROTEIN DEGRADATION

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DESCRIPTION: (adapted from applicant's abstract) The conference 'Ubiquitin and Intracellular Protein Degradation' will be held from July 31 through August 5, 1999, at the Conference Center of the Vermont Academy in Saxton's River, VT. This meeting is sponsored and partially funded by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), and it has been held biennially since 1989. This conference is the only regularly-held international meeting devoted primarily to the biology and biochemistry of ubiquitin. In this application the conference organizers request partial funding for the 1999 conference. The conserved protein ubiquitin, and many of the enzymes which act upon it, are essential in eukaryotes. The biological functions of ubiquitin are mediated by its covalent attachment, through its C-terminal carboxyl group, to lysine residues of cellular proteins. The best-understood function of ubiquitin is that of a signal which targets proteins for ATP-dependent degradation by the 26S proteasome; degradative signaling depends upon the assembly of a substrate-bound polyubiquitin chain with a specific isopeptide structure. By setting the levels of key regulatory proteins, the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation pathway controls fundamental intracellular processes, including the progression of the cell cycle and the induction of the inflammatory response. Ubiquitination can also signal fates other than targeting to the proteasome; the mechanisms of these other signaling functions are only beginning to be understood. Moreover, it has recently become apparent that a set of ubiquitin-like proteins (e.g., Sumo-1/Smt3p) undergo a metabolism which is parallel to, but distinct from, that of ubiquitin. These molecules appear to function as covalent signals which target their substrates to specific locations within the cell. The aforementioned topics are among those to be addressed in the nine scientific sessions of the 1999 Conference. There will be seven regular sessions, each consisting of five invited talks; two special sessions, each consisting of seven talks, will feature presentations to be selected based on submitted abstracts. The latter speakers will be chosen with special attention to younger investigators and exciting recent developments. In addition, there will be two poster sessions. The small size of the conference, and its format, are designed to foster interactions among the 165 participants.