Cellular control in the eukaryotic cell through action of proteinases: the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism.

The involvement of proteinases in cellular control was neglected for many years since it was hard to imagine that such a vital class of macromolecules as the proteins, which are assembled at the expense of a lot of energy, could be broken down by the cell again. To many earlier researchers, proteinases seemed to be boring catalysts present in the cell only to annoy biochemists who wanted to purify proteins. In contrast, recent research has shown proteinases to be vital catalysts in the control of cellular events.