Proteolytic processing and physiological regulation.

Proteolytic processing is a common and effective mechanism of physiological regulation. The basic principle is a conformational change induced in the protein precursor by the post-translational proteolytic cleavage of a specific peptide bond. The extension of earlier studies of model zymogens to more complex systems of physiological regulation, using methods of both protein chemistry and molecular biology, has enormously extended knowledge of the repertoire of proteolytic processing reactions and has contributed significantly to current studies of the structure, domain organization and evolution of proteins.