Structural and functional diversity of caspase homologues in non-metazoan organisms.

ABSTRACT: Caspases, the proteases involved in initiation and execution of metazoan programmed cell death, are only present in animals, while their structural homologues can be found in all domains of life, spanning from simple prokaryotes (orthocaspases) to yeast and plants (metacaspases). All members of this wide protease family contain the p20 domain, which harbours the catalytic dyad formed by the two amino acid residues, histidine and cysteine. Despite the high structural similarity of the p20 domain, metacaspases and orthocaspases were found to exhibit different substrate specificities than caspases. While the former cleave their substrates after basic amino acid residues, the latter accommodate substrates with negative charge. This observation is crucial for the re-evaluation of non-metazoan c

SUBMITTER: Klemencic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5756287 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature