Research progress of SUMOylation modification in DNA double-strand break repair

The small ubiquitin-like modified protein (SUMO) is a protein structurally similar to ubiquitin which is involved in post-translational modification of proteins. SUMOylation refers to the process that SUMO molecule covalently binding to the specific lysine site of target proteins through maturation, activation, binding and ligation by ubiquitin-like specific protease 1 (Ulp1), E1 activating enzyme, E2 binding enzyme, and E3 ligase. SUMOylation alters the activity of target proteins, which is involved in the regulation of various cellular functions such as transcriptional regulation, regulation of embryonic development, cellular stress, maintenance of chromatin structure and genomic stability. In recent years, it has been found that SUMOylation modification is also widely involved in DNA damage repair, especially DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which are the most serious types of DNA damage. SUMOylation is involved in almost all processes of DSBs repair, so its role in DNA damage repair has become a research hotspot. In this paper, the research progress of the regulation of SUMOylation in DSBs repair was reviewed. Key words: DNA damage; DNA repair; SUMOylation; DNA double-strand breaks; Non-homologous end joining; Homologous recombination