Protease is an enzyme that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides or amino acids by hydrolyzing peptide bonds. It plays a crucial role in various metabolic processes, including protein catabolism.
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Proteases are essential for the degradation of dietary proteins into absorbable units in the digestive tract.
They can be categorized based on their active site residues, such as serine proteases, cysteine proteases, and metalloproteases.
Protease activity is tightly regulated to prevent uncontrolled protein breakdown within cells.
Certain microorganisms secrete extracellular proteases to obtain nutrients from their environment by degrading host tissues or other sources of protein.
In microbial metabolism, proteases contribute to nitrogen cycling by breaking down proteins into amino acids which can then be deaminated.
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Related terms
Peptidase: An enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of peptides into amino acids.