In addition, despite being unable to detect an IAV-induced canonical DNA damage response, we identified an infection-responsive increase in the SUMOylation of a remarkable number of host proteins that function in DNA damage repair, such as BLM, EME1, the SUMO E3 ligase PIAS4, the ubiquitin E3 ligases RAD18 and RNF111, and almost all members of the human SMC5/6 complex. The gene discussed is RAD18; the disease is infection.