A novel protein phosphatase 2C family member (PP2Czeta) is able to associate with ubiquitin conjugating enzyme 9.

In this study we have cloned a novel member of mouse protein phosphatase 2C family, PP2Czeta, which is composed of 507 amino acids and has a unique N-terminal region. The overall similarity of the amino acid sequence between PP2Czeta and PP2Calpha was 22%. On Northern blot analysis PP2Czeta was found to be expressed specifically in the testicular germ cells. PP2Czeta expressed in COS7 cells was able to associate with ubiquitin conjugating enzyme 9 (UBC9) and the association was enhanced by co-expression of small ubiquitin-related modifier-1 (SUMO-1), suggesting that PP2Czeta exhibits its specific role through its SUMO-induced recruitment to UBC9.