Selective cleavage of peptide bonds by a serine protease from rat skeletal muscle

The selective cleavage of peptide bonds by a serine protease from skeletal muscle (SK-protease) was examined using glucagon and neurotensin as substrates. Among the peptide bonds cleaved in these substrates, the most susceptible were Phe-Thr-Ser, Tyr-Leu, Trp-Leu, and Tyr-Ile. These results indicate that the SK-protease hydrolyzed the carboxyl side of aromatic amino acid residues under the experimental conditions. When the amino acid on the carboxyl side of aromatic amino acid residues was serine, threonine or glutamic acid, these peptide bonds, such as Phe-Thr, Tyr-Ser, and Tyr-Glu, were not susceptible to another serine protease from small intestine (SI-protease) under the same experimental conditions. The peptide bond between the arginines of Pro-Arg-Arg-Pro in neurotensin was hydrolyzed by the SI-protease, but not by the SK-protease. Thus the specificity of the SK-protease differs from that of the SI-protease. These results suggest that the specificity of the hydrolytic action of the SK-protease is more like that of bovine chymotrypsin A than like that of porcine chymotrypsin C and of the SI-protease.