Deficiency in SUMOylation, by injection of Gam1 mRNA into one cell embryos, leads to differential expression of genes in Xenopus

Background: Adenovirus protein Gam1 triggers the proteolytic destruction of the E1 SUMO-activating enzyme. Microinjection of an empirically determined amount of Gam1 mRNA into one-cell Xenopus embryos can reduce SUMOylation activity to undetectable, but nonlethal levels, enabling an examination of the role of this post-translational modification during early vertebrate development.

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