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RESEARCH PAPER

The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) is required for gonadal and uterine-vulval morphogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans

¹ Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA; ² Department of Biology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel; ³ Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) modification alters the subcellular distribution and function of its substrates. Here we show the major role of SUMO during the development of the Caenorhabditis elegans reproductive system. smo-1 deletion mutants develop into sterile adults with abnormal somatic gonad, germ line, and vulva. SMO-1::GFP reporter is highly expressed in the somatic reproductive system. smo-1 animals lack a vulval-uterine connection as a result of impaired ventral uterine -cell differentiation and anchor cell fusion. Mutations in the LIN-11 LIM domain transcription factor lead to a uterine phenotype that resembles the smo-1 phenotype. LIN-11 is sumoylated, and its sumoylation is required for its activity during uterine morphogenesis. Expression of a SUMO-modified LIN-11 in the smo-1 background partially rescued -cell differentiation and retained LIN-11 in nuclear bodies. Thus, our results identify the reproductive system as the major SUMO target during postembryonic development and highlight LIN-11 as a physiological substrate whose sumoylation is associated with the formation of a functional vulval-uterine connection.

[Keywords: SUMO; somatic gonad; smo-1; lin-11; uterine-vulval connection]

Received May 28, 2004; revised version accepted August 9, 2004.

Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1227104.

Corresponding authors.

⁴ Present address: Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.

⁵ E-MAIL limor.broday{at}mssm.edu; FAX (212) 849-2425.

⁶ E-MAIL zeev.ronai{at}mssm.edu; FAX (212) 849-2425.

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