Protease

A protease (less commonly peptidase or proteinase) is an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of amino acids chains (generally proteins) into smaller amino acid chains as part of a process called proteolysis which would otherwise take decades to thousands of years.

Proteases likely first appeared as simple destructive enzymes in primitive organisms for catabolisis¹⁾ or to recycle (“digest”) amino acids.

• Metalloproteases make use of metals (usually zinc).

The bioavailability of proteases can determine the lifetime of a protein in an organism.