Shilong Yang
Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of sciences,
Kunming 650223, Yunnan
China
Review Article
Discoveries of Serine Protease Inhibitors from Scorpions
Author(s): Md Abdul Hakim and Shilong YangMd Abdul Hakim and Shilong Yang
Protease inhibitors (PIs) are proteins or peptides capable of inhibiting the catalytic activity of proteolytic enzymes. They are widely distributed in nature and can be found in all kingdoms of cellular life and also in viral genomes. It has previously been stated that a typical mammalian genome contains 2% – 4% of genes encoding for proteases or protease inhibitors, indicating the importance of proteolysis in their biological processes. However, many protease inhibitors have been reported to be present in animal venoms, suggesting that venomous animals use these proteins / peptides in their biological process of survival. Similarly, in recent years, some protease inhibitors have been reported to be present in scorpions and most of them have been identified by cDNA library screening or transcriptomic analysis. These protease inhibitors identified from scorpions .. View More»
DOI: 10.4172/jpb.1000395
