REVIEWS  7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSGLUTAMINASES AND PROTEIN CROSSLINKING REACTIONS
Ferrara (Italy), September 14-17, 2002 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2002 June;14(2):149-53

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Transglutaminase substrates: from test tube experiments to living cells and tissues

Csosz E., Keresztessy Z., Fesus L.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

The num­ber of ­known trans­glu­tam­i­nase sub­strates rap­id­ly increas­es. ­Although in ­many cas­es the trans­glu­tam­i­nase-cat­a­lyzed mod­ifi­ca­tion has ­been dem­on­strat­ed in ­test ­tube experi­ments, ­more and ­more of ­these ­data are con­firmed in ­intact ­cells and tis­sues. The func­tion­al require­ments of ­being opti­mal glu­ta­myl or ­lysine ­donor pro­teins ­have not ­been com­plete­ly clar­i­fied. Con­sid­er­ing the num­ber of trans­glu­ta­mi­nas­es and ­that we are ­still at the ear­ly ­phase of pen­e­trat­ing liv­ing (par­tic­u­lar­ly intra­cel­lu­lar) ­systems to ­detect trans­glu­tam­i­nase-cat­a­lyzed mod­ifi­ca­tions, one may pre­sume the exis­tence of a ­large ­amount of ­still ­unknown sub­strate pro­teins. Learn­ing ­what ­these pro­teins are ­will ­shed new ­light on the sig­nif­i­cance of trans­glu­ta­mi­nas­es in liv­ing ­systems.