Volume 271, Number 51,
Issue of December 20, 1996
pp. 32511-32514
©1996 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
COMMUNICATION:
Cleavage Efficiency by Adenovirus Protease Is
Site-dependent
(Received for publication, October 17, 1996)
Mounir
Diouri
,
Hossein
Keyvani-Amineh
,
Kieran F.
Geoghegan
and
Joseph M.
Weber
From the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada J1H 5N4 and the
Department of Molecular Sciences, Central Research
Division, Pfizer Inc., Groton, Connecticut 06340
The adenovirus protease cleaves consensus
sequences (M/I/L)XGX-G and
(M/I/L)XGG-X. Using purified recombinant
protease, we showed that a peptide bearing the GX-G site
was hydrolyzed more rapidly than a peptide bearing the GG-X
site. The GX-G site was also preferentially cleaved on
viral protein pVI which bears both sites of cleavage. Evidence is
presented that suggests a biological role for this differential
cleavage efficiency.