By analyzing the structures of the Polycomb repressive deubiquitinase complex, which catalyzes the deubiquitination of H2AK119Ub on nucleosomes, Zhang, Zheng, Tong and Deng et al. reveal that ubiquitin acts as a proteinaceous glue to fasten the intersubunit interaction within the complex to allosterically enhance its activity.
- Tianyi Zhang
- Jiqing Zheng
- Lei Liu