Suzuki K, Sorimachi H
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Tokyo, Japan.
FEBS Lett. 1998 Aug 14;433(1-2):1-4. doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(98)00856-4.
Calpain, a Ca2+-dependent biomodulator, alters the properties of substrate proteins by cleaving them at a limited number of specific sites. Recent studies of the structure-function relationship of calpain and X-ray analysis of its Ca2+-binding domain have revealed hitherto unknown features of the regulation of calpain activity. A novel dissociation/autolysis mechanism for the activation of calpain at the membrane is proposed, which incorporates recent findings from structure-function studies of calpain, and its implications are discussed.
