Nomenclature on Proteases, Proteinases, and Peptidases
Adapted from “Peptide Mapping and Sequence Analysis of Gel-Resolved Proteins,” Chapter 7, in Proteins and Proteomics (ed. Simpson). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA, 2003.INTRODUCTION
In 1984, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) recommended the use of the term peptidase for the subset of peptide bond hydrolases (Subclass EC3.4.). The widely used term protease is synonymous with the term peptidase. Proteases comprise two groups of enzymes: endoproteases and exoproteases. This article summarizes the characteristics of the main types of proteases.
