> The ubiquitinylation is activating inflammatory response, but then why would viral polymerase activity require ubiquitin? You'd think the viruses would evolve

> The ubiquitinylation is activating inflammatory response, but then why would viral polymerase activity require ubiquitin? You'd think the viruses would evolve away from inflammatory response, not towards. tl;dr - Basically, this seems like it's a mechanism that is akin to the invading virus getting read access (if not root) on the cells security system, to better respond to its environment. --- It's been awhile since my biochem, but here are my thoughts tumbling around (not guaranteed correct): - this might be like an invader noticing that the cells defences are increasing, and being able to scale it's activity with the cellular counter-response, done via activation of Ub. - polyub chains attached to a protein are like a stronger signal for deletion. the more anchored polyUb chains, the more likely/quickly something will be tagged for removal. - unanchored polyUb chains (that have been cut off destroyed proteins) would be a signal that a severe immune response is underway. for these free/unanchored polyUb chains to be an activator of something viral, it's the virus having a way to know when things are getting serious in the cell. - unanchored ub might be a byproduct of a tagging. it may be active form, free-floating. High unachored ub might be product of higher transcription during stresss/inflamatory response