OTU Domain Containing Protein 1 (OTUD1)

Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are capable of producing a free ubiquitin moiety from ubiquitin-fused precursors and ubiquitylated proteins in cells. DUBs possess conserved catalytic regions known as the 'cys domain' and the 'his domain.' There are 2 distinct families of DUBs: ubiquitin-specific processing proteases (UBPs, or USPs) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolases (UCHs). DUBA7 belongs to a DUB subfamily characterized by an ovarian tumor (OTU) domain.

Kayagaki et al. (2007) identified ovarian tumor domain (OTU)-containing protein 1 (OTUD1) in a small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based screen for OTU deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) family members. The 3,389-basepair mRNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) predicting a 638-amino acid protein. OTUD1 contains, in addition to an OTU domain, a ubiquitin interaction motif (UIM) at the carboxy terminus.