proteolysis
Sign in to savethumb|300px|The hydrolysis of a [[protein (red) by the nucleophilic attack of water (blue). The uncatalysed half-life is several hundred years.]]
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Biological functions
- Post-translational proteolytic processing
- Removal of ''N''-terminal methionine
- Removal of the signal sequence
- Cleavage of polyproteins
- Cleavage of precursor proteins
- Protein degradation
- Lysosome and proteasome
- Rate of intracellular protein degradation
- Digestion
- Cellular regulation
- Cell cycle regulation
- Apoptosis
- Autoproteolysis
- Proteolysis and diseases
- Non-enzymatic processes
- Laboratory applications
- Protease enzymes
- Venoms
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|300px|The hydrolysis of a [[protein (red) by the nucleophilic attack of water (blue). The uncatalysed half-life is several hundred years.]]
Proteolysis is the breakdown of proteins into smaller polypeptides or amino acids. Protein degradation is a major regulatory mechanism of gene expression and contributes substantially to shaping mammalian proteomes. Uncatalysed, the hydrolysis of peptide bonds is extremely slow, taking hundreds of years. Proteolysis is typically catalysed by cellular enzymes called proteases, but may also occur by intra-molecular digestion.