<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>Aspartic endopeptidases <db_xref db="EC" dbkey="3.4.23."/> of vertebrate, fungal and retroviral origin have been characterised [<cite idref="PUB00006548"/>]. More recently, aspartic endopeptidases associated with the processing of bacterial type 4 prepilin [<cite idref="PUB00020023"/>] and archaean preflagellin have been described [<cite idref="PUB00035904"/>, <cite idref="PUB00014343"/>].</p><p>Structurally, aspartic endopeptidases are bilobal enzymes, each lobe contributing a catalytic Asp residue, with an extended active site cleft localised between the two lobes of the molecule. One lobe has probably evolved from the other through a gene duplication event in the distant past. In modern-day enzymes, although the three-dimensional structures are very similar, the amino acid sequences are more divergent, except for the catalytic site motif, which is very conserved. The presence and position of disulphide bridges are other conserved features of aspartic peptidases.All or most aspartate peptidases are endopeptidases. These enzymes have been assigned into clans (proteins which are evolutionary related), and further sub-divided into families, largely on the basis of their tertiary structure.</p><p>This group of aspartic peptidases belong to MEROPS peptidase family A22 (presenilin family, clan AD): subfamily A22A, the type example being presenilin 1 from <taxon tax_id="9606">Homo sapiens</taxon> (Human).</p><p>Presenilins are polytopic transmembrane (TM) proteins, mutations in whichare associated with the occurrence of early-onset familial Alzheimer'sdisease, a rare form of the disease that results from a single-genemutation [<cite idref="PUB00000974"/>, <cite idref="PUB00002010"/>]. The physiological functions of presenilins are unknown, but they may be related to developmental signalling, apoptotic signal transduction, or processing of selected proteins, such as the beta-amyloid precursor protein(beta-APP). There are a number of subtypes which belong to this presenilin family. That presenilin homologues have been identified in species that do not have an Alzhemier's disease correlate suggests that they may have functions unrelated to the disease, homologues having been identified in <taxon tax_id="10090">Mus musculus</taxon> (Mouse), <taxon tax_id="7227">Drosophila melanogaster</taxon>, <taxon tax_id="6239">Caenorhabditis elegans</taxon> [<cite idref="PUB00004220"/>] and other members of the eukarya including plants. </p><p>In humans, there are two presenilin genes (PS1 and PS2)that share 67% amino acid identity, the greatest divergence between the two falling in the N terminus and in the large hydrophilic loop towards the C terminus of each molecule. Six to nine TM domains are predicted for each, and biochemical analysis has demonstrated that their C-termini are cytoplasmic; but the orientation of their N-termini and large hydrophilic loops remains to be resolved. They are expressed in almost all tissues, including the brain and, at a cellular level, they have been localised to the nuclear envelope, endoplasmicreticulum and Golgi apparatus. </p><p>This signature defines vertebrate presenilin 1 proteins. Presenilin 1 has been shown to be phosphorylated by protein kinase C, and isendogenously cleaved into 28 kDa N-terminal and 19 kDa C-terminal fragments.Consequently, little of the uncleaved peptide is detectable <i>in vivo</i>. PS1gene mutations are thought to account for the majority of early-onsetfamilial Alzheimer's disease cases. To date, 45 different mutations havebeen identified in PS1, all but one of which result in a single amino changein the presenilin 1 molecule. Affected residues always occur in regions ofthe sequence that are conserved between presenilins 1 and 2, and the C. eleganshomologue, sel-12 [<cite idref="PUB00000975"/>]. The mutations are thought to be responsible for ~50%of cases of early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease, in contrast, less than1% resulting from mutations in PS2. How the mutations trigger disease is unknown, but one biochemical effect consistently associated with them is analteration in the proteolytic cleavage of beta-APP such that there isoverproduction of long-tailed beta-amyloid peptide derivatives.</p> Peptidase A22A, presenilin 1