ATG4D Blocking Peptide

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 remodeling 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 belongs to the autophagy-related protein 4 (Atg4) family of C54 endopeptidases. Members of this family encode proteins that play a role in the biogenesis of autophagosomes, which sequester the cytosol and organelles for degradation by lysosomes. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2013]

ATG4D: Cysteine protease required for autophagy, which cleaves the C-terminal part of either MAP1LC3, GABARAPL2 or GABARAP, allowing the liberation of form I. A subpopulation of form I is subsequently converted to a smaller form (form II). Form II, with a revealed C-terminal glycine, is considered to be the phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)-conjugated form, and has the capacity for the binding to autophagosomes. Belongs to the peptidase C54 family.

Protein type: Autophagy; EC 3.4.22.-; Protease; Ubiquitin conjugating system

Chromosomal Location of Human Ortholog: 19p13.2

Cellular Component: mitochondrial matrix; cytoplasm; cytosol

Molecular Function: cysteine-type endopeptidase activity

Biological Process: protein delipidation; apoptosis; mitochondrion degradation; C-terminal protein lipidation; protein processing; proteolysis; protein targeting to membrane; autophagic vacuole formation; cellular response to nitrogen starvation