Question

1. Research Caspase-2 protease:

Indicate i) the class of enzymes to which Caspase-2 belongs, ii) the kind of bond that is modified by this enzyme, iii) indicate the substrate that is recognised by the enzyme using the amino acid three letter code and iv) whether the enzyme displays high or low substrate specificity.

Answer 1

Please find the asnwers below:

Answer i: The caspase-2 protease is a specific type of non-mitochondrial protease by nature which belongs to a superfamily of cystein proteases.

Answer ii: Molecular investigations have shown that the caspase-2 cleaves the polypeptide bond after identification of the target site and re-arranges the left-over peptide by modification of the hydrogen bonds.

Answer iii: Generally, the substrate recognized by this protease must contain the amino acid sequence VDQ. Presence of this sequence makes the protease to act over the protein for its digestion.

Answer iv: Since the enzyme active site is specific for identification of the recognition site, hte enzyme displays high substrate specificity.