Yeast prohormone processing enzyme (KEX2 gene product) is a Ca2+-dependent serine protease.

The KEX2-encoded endoprotease was overproduced in yeast several hundred-fold and further purified to achieve a 10,000-fold enrichment in specific activity. The enzyme was (i) membrane-bound, but solubilized by detergents; (ii) able to cleave peptide substrates at both Lys-Arg and Arg-Arg sites; (iii) inhibited by EDTA and EGTA (but not o-phenanthroline), but fully reactivated by Ca2+; (iv) unaffected by 5-10 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, N alpha-(ptosyl)lysine chloromethyl ketone, or L-1-tosylamido-2-phenylethyl chloromethyl ketone, but inactivated by 1-2 microM Ala-Lys-Arg-chloromethyl ketone; (v) labeled specifically by 125I-labeled Tyr-Ala-Lys-Arg-chloromethyl ketone; and (vi) resistant to trans-epoxysuccinate compounds (which inactivate thiol proteases), but inactivated by diisopropyl fluorophosphate (a diagnostic serine protease inhibitor). Mutant enzyme molecules lacking as many as 200 C-terminal residues still retained Ca2+-dependent protease activity and were labeled by 125I-labeled Tyr-Ala-Lys-Arg-chloromethyl ketone.