Structural organization of precursors of thermolysin-like proteinases

The primary structures of the full-length precursors of thermolysin-like proteinases (TLPs) were systemically analyzed. Structural comparison of the precursor amino-terminal regions (ATRs) removed during maturation allowed us to divide the family into two groups: peptidases with short (about 50 amino acids) and long (about 200 amino acids) ATRs. The accumulation of mutations in the ATRs of both types proved to correlate with that in the catalytic domains. No classical signal peptides were identified in the short ATRs, but they contained a conserved PPL-motif near the initiation methionine. The functional role of the short ATRs and PPL-motif is currently unclear. The C-terminal regions (CTRs) of TLP precursors, which are often removed during maturation, too, are found in about a half of precursors with long ATRs, but occur more rarely in precursors with short ATRs. CTRs in TLP precursors contain previously identified conserved domains typical for many other proteins and likely underlie the interaction with high molecular weight substrates.