This application requests partial funding for a conference on UBIQUITIN AND INTRACELLULAR PROTEOLYTIC DEGRADATION, to be held June 9-14, 1991 at Saxtons River, VT. This conference is sponsored by and receives partial support from the Federation of the American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB). The first international meeting of this group convened in 1989 under the guidance of FASEB. The meeting was such a success that the conferees unanimously approved meeting again every other year. The 1991 meeting format will consist of nine formal sessions (two each day-in the morning and evening-except for Friday when there will be only a morning session) with four to five invited speakers at each session. Ample time will be set aside for posters, informal talks and discussion. The chairperson will provide a brief overview and background for the particular session. The maj""""""""or focus of this conference is on ubiquitin and biochemical systems for the intracellular degradation of protein. Ubiquitin is a small, highly conserved eukaryotic protein. It functions in protein breakdown by becoming covalently linked to other proteins and then serves as a reuseable recognition signal for proteolysis. It is also involved in chromatin structure, cell/cell interactions, signal transduction, DNA repair, cell cycle, cytoskeleton, ribosomal assembly, viruses, and various neuronal diseases (including Alzheimer's) through its attachment to specific proteins, but its role is unclear. The details and breadth of the ubiquitin system are emerging at an ever increasing rate making a meeting of this type important. But, at the same time, it has become clear that this ATP-ubiquitin-dependent system is not the only one employed by cells and in particular, prokaryotes and organelles use other types of ATP-dependent proteolytic enzymes. Discussion of these non-ubiquitin systems in prokaryotes and eukaryotes is also planned. The specific sessions include ubiquitin genes and their expression, enzymes involved in the ubiquitin pathway, recognition signals for ubiquitin conjugation, prokaryotic cell protein degradation, the proteasome, regulation and physiological factors in protein breakdown, and protein degradation in organelles. This is the only major international conference on ubiquitin and protein breakdown and will attempt to bring together investigators working on the regulation of protein degradation in emerging animal, bacterial, and plant systems.
