Revised nomenclature and functional overview of the ULP gene family of plant deSUMOylating proteases

Functional insight on the post-translational modifier SUMO and its biochemical pathway in plants has steadily increased over the past decade. In contrast to the low number of core components that catalytically control SUMO attachment to targets, the enzymes that control deconjugation and SUMO maturation seem to have diversified in terms of both gene number and biological function. However, studies on these deSUMOylating proteases have been accompanied by diversity in nomenclature and unclear evolutionary categorization. We provide a state-of-the-art assessment of the evolutionary subclades within the ULP gene family of plant deSUMOylating proteases, and propose a nomenclature for this protease subgroup for consistent annotation of ULP-encoding genes in plant genomes.