Identification of a new caspase homologue: caspase-14.
Caspases are cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinases, many of which play a central role in apoptosis. Here, we report the identification of a new murine caspase homologue, viz. caspase-14. It is most related to human/murine caspase-2 and human caspase-9, possesses all the typical amino acid residues of the caspases involved in catalysis, including the QACRG box, and contains no or only a very short prodomain. Murine caspase-14 shows 83% similarity to human caspase-14. Human caspase-14 is assigned to chromosome 19p13.1. Northern blot analysis revealed that mRNA expression of caspase-14 is undetectable in all mouse adult tissues examined except for skin, while it is abundantly expressed in mouse embryos. In contrast to many other caspase family members, murine caspase-14 is not cleaved by granzyme B, caspase-1, caspase-2, caspase-3, caspase-6, caspase-7 or caspase-11, but is weakly processed into p18 and p11 subunits by murine caspase-8. No aspartase activity of murine caspase-14 could be generated by bacterial or yeast expression. Transient overexpression of murine caspase-14 in mammalian cells did not elicit cell death and did not interfere with caspase-8-induced apoptosis. In conclusion, caspase-14 is a member of the caspase family but no proteolytic or biological activities have been identified so far. The high constitutive expression levels in embryos and specific expression in adult skin suggest a role in ontogenesis and skin physiology.
Van de Craen
M
M
Department of Molecular Biology, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology and University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium.
Van Loo
G
G
Pype
S
S
Van Criekinge
W
W
Van den brande
I
I
Molemans
F
F
Fiers
W
W
Declercq
W
W
Vandenabeele
P
P
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020170:Caspase 1 / Q000737:chemistry; D053456:Caspase 14; D020169:Caspases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014162:Transfection
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C506446:CASP14 protein, human; C506449:Casp14 protein, mouse; D053456:Caspase 14; D020169:Caspases; D020170:Caspase 1