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Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Functional Characterization of RING-Type E3 Ubiquitin Ligases In Vitro and In Planta
Published on: December 5, 2019
Wnt-Dependent Inactivation of the Groucho/TLE Co-repressor by the HECT E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Hyd/UBR5
Joshua E Flack1, Juliusz Mieszczanek1, Nikola Novcic1
1MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 0QH, UK.
Abstract:
Extracellular signals are transduced to the cell nucleus by effectors that bind to enhancer complexes to operate transcriptional switches. For example, the Wnt enhanceosome is a multiprotein complex associated with Wnt-responsive enhancers through T cell factors (TCF) and kept silent by Groucho/TLE co-repressors. Wnt-activated β-catenin binds to TCF to overcome this repression, but how it achieves this is unknown. Here, we discover that this process depends on the HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase Hyd/UBR5, which is required for Wnt signal responses in Drosophila and human cell lines downstream of activated Armadillo/β-catenin. We identify Groucho/TLE as a functionally relevant substrate, whose ubiquitylation by UBR5 is induced by Wnt signaling and conferred by β-catenin. Inactivation of TLE by UBR5-dependent ubiquitylation also involves VCP/p97, an AAA ATPase regulating the folding of various cellular substrates including ubiquitylated chromatin proteins. Thus, Groucho/TLE ubiquitylation by Hyd/UBR5 is a key prerequisite that enables Armadillo/β-catenin to activate transcription.
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