<p>In the MEROPS database peptidases and peptidase homologues are grouped into clans and families. Clans are groups of families for which there is evidence of common ancestry based on a common structural fold:</p><ul> <li>Each clan is identified with two letters, the first representing the catalytic type of the families included in the clan (with the letter 'P' being used for a clan containing families of more than one of the catalytic types serine, threonine and cysteine). Some families cannot yet be assigned to clans, and when a formal assignment is required, such a family is described as belonging to clan A-, C-, M-, N-, S-, T- or U-, according to the catalytic type. Some clans are divided into subclans because there is evidence of a very ancient divergence within the clan, for example MA(E), the gluzincins, and MA(M), the metzincins.</li><li>Peptidase families are grouped by their catalytic type, the first character representing the catalytic type: A, aspartic; C, cysteine; G, glutamic acid; M, metallo; N, asparagine; S, serine; T, threonine; and U, unknown. The serine, threonine and cysteine peptidases utilise the amino acid as a nucleophile and form an acyl intermediate - these peptidases can also readily act as transferases. In the case of aspartic, glutamic and metallopeptidases, the nucleophile is an activated water molecule. In the case of the asparagine endopeptidases, the nucleophile is asparagine and all are self-processing endopeptidases. </li></ul><p>In many instances the structural protein fold that characterises the clan or family may have lost its catalytic activity, yet retain its function in protein recognition and binding. </p><p>Metalloproteases are the most diverse of the four main types of protease, with more than 50 families identified to date. In these enzymes, a divalent cation, usually zinc, activates the water molecule. The metal ion is held in place by amino acid ligands, usually three in number. The known metal ligands are His, Glu, Asp or Lys and at least one other residue is required for catalysis, which may play an electrophillic role. Of the known metalloproteases, around half contain an HEXXH motif, which has been shown in crystallographic studies to form part of the metal-binding site [<cite idref="PUB00003579"/>]. The HEXXH motif is relatively common, but can be more stringently defined for metalloproteases as 'abXHEbbHbc', where 'a' is most often valine or threonine and forms part of the S1' subsite in thermolysin and neprilysin, 'b' is an uncharged residue, and 'c' a hydrophobic residue. Proline is never found in this site, possibly because it would break the helical structure adopted by this motif in metalloproteases [<cite idref="PUB00003579"/>].</p><p>A number of proteases dependent on divalent cations for their activity havebeen shown [<cite idref="PUB00000495"/>, <cite idref="PUB00005438"/>] to belong to one family, on the basis of sequence similarity.These enzymes are listed below: </p><ul> <li>Insulinase (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="3.4.24.56"/>) (also known as insulysin or insulin-degrading enzyme or IDE), a cytoplasmic enzyme which seems to be involved in the cellular processing of insulin, glucagon and other small polypeptides.</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="562">Escherichia coli</taxon> protease III (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="3.4.24.55"/>) (pitrilysin) (gene ptr), a periplasmic enzyme that degrades small peptides.</li> <li>Mitochondrial processing peptidase (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="3.4.24.64"/>) (MPP). This enzyme removes the transit peptide from the precursor form of proteins imported from the cytoplasm across the mitochondrial inner membrane. It is composed of two non-identical homologous subunits termed alpha and beta. The beta subunit seems to be catalytically active while the alpha subunit has probably lost its activity.</li> <li>Nardilysin (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="3.4.24.61"/>) (N-arginine dibasic convertase or NRD convertase) this mammalian enzyme cleaves peptide substrates on the N terminus of Arg residues in dibasic stretches.</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="573">Klebsiella pneumoniae</taxon> protein pqqF. This protein is required for the biosynthesis of the coenzyme pyrrolo-quinoline-quinone (PQQ). It is thought to be protease that cleaves peptide bonds in a small peptide (gene pqqA) thus providing the glutamate and tyrosine residues necessary for the synthesis of PQQ.</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="4932">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</taxon> (Baker's yeast) protein AXL1, which is involved in axial budding [<cite idref="PUB00004194"/>].</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="5803">Eimeria bovis</taxon> sporozoite developmental protein.</li> <li>E. coli hypothetical protein yddC and HI1368, the corresponding <taxon tax_id="727">Haemophilus influenzae</taxon> protein.</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="1423">Bacillus subtilis</taxon> hypothetical protein ymxG.</li> <li> <taxon tax_id="6239">Caenorhabditis elegans</taxon> hypothetical proteins C28F5.4 and F56D2.1.</li></ul><p>It should be noted that in addition to the above enzymes, this family alsoincludes the core proteins I and II of the mitochondrial bc1 complex (alsocalled cytochrome c reductase or complex III), but the situation as to theactivity or lack of activity of these subunits is quite complex:</p><ul> <li>In mammals and yeast, core proteins I and II lack enzymatic activity.</li> <li>In <taxon tax_id="5141">Neurospora crassa</taxon> and in potato core protein I is equivalent to the beta subunit of MPP.</li> <li>In <taxon tax_id="3039">Euglena gracilis</taxon>, core protein I seems to be active, while subunit II is inactive.</li></ul><p>These proteins do not share many regions of sequence similarity; the mostnoticeable is in the N-terminal section. This region includes a conservedhistidine followed, two residues later by a glutamate and another histidine.In pitrilysin, it has been shown [<cite idref="PUB00004779"/>, <cite idref="PUB00015338"/>] that this H-x-x-E-H motif is involved inenzyme activity; the two histidines bind zinc and the glutamate is necessaryfor catalytic activity. Non-active members of this family have lost from oneto three of these active site residues. This signature pattern only detects active members of the M16 peptidase family.</p> Peptidase M16, zinc-binding site