Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Keywords

metallopeptidase, protease, pseudoenzyme, carboxypeptidase, ADAM, AEBP1, mitochondrial processing peptidase, sonic hedgehog

Abstract

Inactive enzyme homologs, or pseudoenzymes, are proteins, found within most enzyme families, that are incapable of performing catalysis. Rather than catalysis, they are involved in protein-protein interactions, sometimes regulating the activity of their active enzyme cousins, or scaffolding protein complexes. Pseudoenzymes found within metallopeptidase families likewise perform these functions. Pseudoenzymes within the M14 carboxypeptidase family interact with collagens within the extracellular space, while pseudopeptidase members of the M12 "a disintegrin and metalloprotease" (ADAM) family either discard their pseudopeptidase domains as unnecessary for their roles in sperm maturation or utilize surface loops to enable assembly of key complexes at neuronal synapses. Other metallopeptidase families contain pseudopeptidases involved in protein synthesis at the ribosome and protein import into organelles, sometimes using their pseudo-active sites for these interactions. Although the functions of these pseudopeptidases have been challenging to study, ongoing work is teasing out the secret lives of these proteins.

Journal Title

Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences

Volume

11

Issue

5

First Page

48

Last Page

49

DOI

10.3389/fmolb.2024.1436917

First Department

Biology

Acknowledgements

Open access article retrieved November 17, 2025, from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2024.1436917/full

Download

Share

COinS