The meteoric rise of regulated intracellular proteolysis.
It is often the case in biology that research into breaking things down lags behind research into synthesizing them, and this is certainly true for intracellular proteolysis. Now that we recognize that intracellular proteolysis, triggered by attaching multiple copies of a small protein called ubiquitin to target proteins, is fundamental to life, it is hard to believe that 20 years ago this field was little more than a backwater of biochemistry studied by a handful of laboratories. Among the few were Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Alexander Varshavsky, who were recently awarded the Albert Lasker award for basic medical research for discovering the importance of protein degradation in cellular physiology. This Timeline traces how they and their collaborators triggered the rapid movement of ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis to centre stage.
Laboratory for Intracellular Proteolysis, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK. john.mayer@nottingham.ac.uk
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D000818:Animals; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D004194:Disease; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014452:Ubiquitins / Q000378:metabolism*
D011506:Proteins; D014452:Ubiquitins; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; C061553:ATP dependent 26S protease