SMURF2 and cancer: In cancer cells, KLF5 protein can be degraded through ubiquitination-mediated pathways [34, 35], and we hypothesized that KLF5 loss with higher levels of stress in non-transformed epithelial cells might also be due to ubiquitin-mediated degradation Surprisingly, KLF5 ubiquitination decreased at later time points following UV exposure (Fig. 4B), coincident with increased expression of the deubiquitinases ATXN3L and BAP1 and decreased expression of the ubiquitinases FBW7, WWP1, and SMURF2 (Fig. 4C); notably, each of these regulate KLF5 degradation in other contexts [36–39].