20 S proteasomes are assembled via distinct precursor complexes. Processing of LMP2 and LMP7 proproteins takes place in 13-16 S preproteasome complexes.

The non-essential mouse proteasome beta-type subunits LMP2 and LMP7 are thought to connect proteasomes to the MHC class I antigen processing pathway. Both subunits are synthesized as proproteins. We have studied the processing of both subunits, correlated with the maturation of 20 S proteasomes in mouse T cells.

Drosophila proteasome Dm25 subunit substitutes the mouse MC3 subunit in hybrid proteasomes. The N-terminal domain is essential for subunit incorporation.

The proteasome is a multisubunit 20 S proteinase complex involved in ubiquitin-dependent and -independent intracellular protein metabolism. Individual subunits of the alpha- and beta-type share extensive sequence homology and are encoded as members of two related and evolutionarily conserved gene families. Due to the lack of viable deletion mutants of essential alpha-type proteasome subunits in higher eukaryotes, an identification and analysis of potentially homologous subunits of different species was so far not possible.

Molecular characterization of the genomic regions of the Drosophila alpha-type subunit proteasome genes PROS-Dm28.1 and PROS-Dm35.

The proteasome (multicatalytic proteinase) consists of a large number of non-identical protein subunits which are encoded by the evolutionarily conserved PROS gene family. Using the PROS-Dm35 and PROS-Dm28.1 cDNAs as probes, we have isolated the corresponding genomic DNA clones of Drosophila melanogaster.