Protease - Occurrence

Occurrence

Proteases occur naturally in all organisms. These enzymes are involved in a multitude of physiological reactions from simple digestion of food proteins to highly regulated cascades (e.g., the blood-clotting cascade, the complement system, apoptosis pathways, and the invertebrate prophenoloxidase-activating cascade). Proteases can either break specific peptide bonds (limited proteolysis), depending on the amino acid sequence of a protein, or break down a complete peptide to amino acids (unlimited proteolysis). The activity can be a destructive change, abolishing a protein's function or digesting it to its principal components; it can be an activation of a function, or it can be a signal in a signaling pathway.

Bacteria also secrete proteases to hydrolyse (digest) the peptide bonds in proteins and therefore break the proteins down into their constituent monomers. Bacterial and fungal proteases are particularly important to the global carbon and nitrogen cycles in the recycling of proteins, and such activity tends to be regulated in by nutritional signals in these organisms. The net impact of nutritional regulation of protease activity among the thousands of species present in soil can be observed at the overall microbial community level as proteins are broken down in response to carbon, nitrogen, or sulfur limitation.

A secreted bacterial protease may also act as an exotoxin, and be an example of a virulence factor in bacterial pathogenesis. Bacterial exotoxic proteases destroy extracellular structures. Protease enzymes are also used extensively in the bread industry in bread improver.

Proteases, also known as proteinases or proteolytic enzymes, are a large group of enzymes. Proteases belong to the class of enzymes known as hydrolases, which catalyse the reaction of hydrolysis of various bonds with the participation of a water molecule.

Proteases are involved in digesting long protein chains into short fragments, splitting the peptide bonds that link amino acid residues. Some of them can detach the terminal amino acids from the protein chain (exopeptidases, such as aminopeptidases, carboxypeptidase A); the others attack internal peptide bonds of a protein (endopeptidases, such as trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, papain, elastase).

Proteases are divided into four major groups according to the character of their catalytic active site and conditions of action: serine proteinases, cysteine (thiol) proteinases, aspartic proteinases, and metalloproteinases. Attachment of a protease to a certain group depends on the structure of catalytic site and the amino acid (as one of the constituents) essential for its activity.

Proteases are used throughout an organism for various metabolic processes. Acid proteases secreted into the stomach (such as pepsin) and serine proteases present in duodenum (trypsin and chymotrypsin) enable us to digest the protein in food; proteases present in blood serum (thrombin, plasmin, Hageman factor, etc.) play important role in blood-clotting, as well as lysis of the clots, and the correct action of the immune system. Other proteases are present in leukocytes (elastase, cathepsin G) and play several different roles in metabolic control. Proteases determine the lifetime of other proteins playing important physiological role like hormones, antibodies, or other enzymes—this is one of the fastest "switching on" and "switching off" regulatory mechanisms in the physiology of an organism. By complex cooperative action the proteases may proceed as cascade reactions, which result in rapid and efficient amplification of an organism's response to a physiological signal.

Proteases are part of many laundry detergents.