title: Enterokinase, the initiator of intestinal digestion, is a mosaic protease composed of a distinctive assortment of domains.
abstract: Enterokinase is a protease of the intestinal brush border that specifically cleaves the acidic propeptide from trypsinogen to yield active trypsin. This cleavage initiates a cascade of proteolytic reactions leading to the activation of many pancreatic zymogens. The full-length cDNA sequence for bovine enterokinase and partial cDNA sequence for human enterokinase were determined. The deduced amino acid sequences indicate that active two-chain enterokinase is derived from a single-chain precursor. Membrane association may be mediated by a potential signal-anchor sequence near the amino terminus. The amino terminus of bovine enterokinase also meets the known sequence requirements for protein N-myristoylation. The amino-terminal heavy chain contains domains that are homologous to segments of the low density lipoprotein receptor, complement components C1r and C1s, the macrophage scavenger receptor, and a recently described motif shared by the metalloprotease meprin and the Xenopus A5 neuronal recognition protein. The carboxyl-terminal light chain is homologous to the trypsin-like serine proteases. Thus, enterokinase is a mosaic protein with a complex evolutionary history. The amino acid sequence surrounding the amino terminus of the enterokinase light chain is ITPK-IVGG (human) or VSPK-IVGG (bovine), suggesting that single-chain enterokinase is activated by an unidentified trypsin-like protease that cleaves the indicated Lys-Ile bond. Therefore, enterokinase may not be the "first" enzyme of the intestinal digestive hydrolase cascade. The specificity of enterokinase for the DDDDK-I sequence of trypsinogen may be explained by complementary basic-amino acid residues clustered in potential S2-S5 subsites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, Washington University School of Medicine, MO 63110.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kitamoto
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: McCourt
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Sadler
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D002417:Cattle; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D004765:Enteropeptidase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000502:physiology; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D004765:Enteropeptidase