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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Biochem Sci. 2015 Oct 22;40(12):779–793. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2015.09.006

Figure 1. Redistribution of the Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) machinery during mitosis.

Figure 1

During interphase, SUMO2/3 (S in blue circles) and UBC9 are mostly present inside the nucleus (purple) and also exhibit specific functions in the cytoplasm. During early mitosis, the chromosomes (dark red) condense and align at the equator of the cell. Similarly, SUMO2/3 accumulates at the metaphase plate and disappears again during anaphase after the sister chromatids have separated. The RanGap-SUMO1/UBC9/RanBP2 complex and the SUMO proteases SENP1 and SENP2 are mostly located at the nuclear envelope and the nuclear pores during interphase and redistribute to the centromeres and kinetochores during early mitosis. SUMO1 remains associated with the SUMO E3 ligase RanBP2 during mitosis and is therefore also present at mitotic chromosomes. Similarly, the SUMO ligase PIASγ and the SUMO protease SENP7 are known to accumulate at centromeric and pericentric regions during metaphase. The SUMO protease SENP5, by contrast, translocates from the nucleoli to the mitochondria (grey) at the early onset of mitosis prior to nuclear breakdown. The SUMO E2 UBC9 and SUMO E3 ligases are shown in pink and SUMO proteases (SENPs) are shown in green.