Cysteine protease ATG4A explained

Cysteine protease ATG4A is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ATG4A gene.^{[1] [2]}

Autophagy is the process by which endogenous proteins and damaged organelles are destroyed intracellularly. Autophagy is postulated to be essential for cell homeostasis and cell remodelling during differentiation, metamorphosis, non-apoptotic cell death, and aging. Reduced levels of autophagy have been described in some malignant tumors, and a role for autophagy in controlling the unregulated cell growth linked to cancer has been proposed. This gene encodes a member of the autophagin protein family. The encoded protein is also designated as a member of the C-54 family of cysteine proteases. Transcript variants that encode distinct isoforms have been identified.^[2]

Further reading

• Scherz-Shouval R, Shvets E, Fass E . Reactive oxygen species are essential for autophagy and specifically regulate the activity of Atg4 . EMBO J. . 26 . 7 . 1749–60 . 2007 . 17347651 . 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601623 . 1847657 . etal.
• Ross MT, Grafham DV, Coffey AJ . The DNA sequence of the human X chromosome . Nature . 434 . 7031 . 325–37 . 2005 . 15772651 . 10.1038/nature03440 . 2665286 . 2005Natur.434..325R . etal.
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA . The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) . Genome Res. . 14 . 10B . 2121–7 . 2004 . 15489334 . 10.1101/gr.2596504 . 528928 . etal.
• Kabeya Y, Mizushima N, Yamamoto A . LC3, GABARAP and GATE16 localize to autophagosomal membrane depending on form-II formation . J. Cell Sci. . 117 . Pt 13 . 2805–12 . 2005 . 15169837 . 10.1242/jcs.01131 . etal. free .
• Ota T, Suzuki Y, Nishikawa T . Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs . Nat. Genet. . 36 . 1 . 40–5 . 2004 . 14702039 . 10.1038/ng1285 . etal. free .
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH . Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 99 . 26 . 16899–903 . 2003 . 12477932 . 10.1073/pnas.242603899 . 139241 . 2002PNAS...9916899M . etal. free .

Notes and References

1. Scherz-Shouval R, Sagiv Y, Shorer H, Elazar Z . The COOH terminus of GATE-16, an intra-Golgi transport modulator, is cleaved by the human cysteine protease HsApg4A . J Biol Chem . 278 . 16 . 14053–8 . Apr 2003 . 12473658 . 10.1074/jbc.M212108200 . free .
2. Web site: Entrez Gene: ATG4A ATG4 autophagy related 4 homolog A (S. cerevisiae).