Pellman D, Christman M F
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Nat Cell Biol. 2001 Sep;3(9):E207-9. doi: 10.1038/ncb0901-e207.
Separase is a protease that cleaves the bonds between sister chromatids during cell division. Until now, separase was thought to be a somewhat repressed protease, cleaving only a few substrates in a very controlled fashion. New findings in this issue raise the possibility that separase has some of the atavistic impulses that characterize caspases, its more destructive relatives.
分离酶是一种蛋白酶，在细胞分裂过程中可切割姐妹染色单体之间的连接键。到目前为止，分离酶一直被认为是一种受到一定抑制的蛋白酶，仅以非常可控的方式切割少数底物。本期的新发现增加了一种可能性，即分离酶具有一些返祖冲动，这些冲动是其更具破坏性的亲属——半胱天冬酶所特有的。
