The first structure in a family of peptidase inhibitors

We report the crystal structure solution of the Intracellular Protease Inhibitor (IPI) protein from , which has been reported to be an inhibitor of Bacillus subtilis the intracellular subtilisin Isp1 from the same organism. The structure of IPI is a variant of the all-beta, immunoglobulin (Ig) fold. It is possible that IPI is important for protein-protein interactions, of which inhibition of Isp1 is one. The intracellular nature of ISP is questioned, because an alternative ATG codon in the gene would produce a protein with an N-terminal extension containing a ipi signal peptide. It is possible that alternative initiation exists, producing either an intracellular inhibitor or a secreted form that may be associated with the cell surface. Homologues of the IPI protein from other species are multi-domain proteins, containing signal peptides and domains also associated with the bacterial cell-surface. The cysteine peptidase inhibitors chagasin and amoebiasin also have Ig-like folds, but their topology differs significantly from that of IPI, and they share no recent common ancestor. A model of IPI docked to Isp1 shows similarities to other subtilisin:inhibitor complexes, particularly where the inhibitor interacts with the peptidase active site. This article is included in the gateway. EMBL-EBI 1 2,3 4 5,6