Conformational predictive studies on the activation segment of pancreatic procarboxypeptidases.

Little is known about the conformation and evolutionary origin of the activation segment of pancreatic procarboxypeptidases. Analysis of the sequence and secondary structure propensities of these propeptide segments indicate that they contain two regions structurally related to the Ca2+-binding sites of the EF-hand protein family. This proposed homology could explain how (and why) carboxypeptidases developed such long (94 residues) activation peptides.