Elastase 2B (ELA2B)

Elastases form a subfamily of serine proteases that hydrolyze many proteins in addition to elastin. Humans have six elastase genes which encode the structurally similar proteins elastase 1, 2, 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B. Like most of the human elastases, elastase 2B is secreted from the pancreas as a zymogen. In other species, elastase 2B has been shown to preferentially cleave proteins after leucine, methionine, and phenylalanine residues.

By screening a human pancreas cDNA library with rat elastase-2 cDNA, Kawashima et al. (1987) cloned ELA2A and ELA2B. Both deduced proteins contain 269 amino acids, and they share about 90% amino acid identity. Both proteins have a 16-amino acid N-terminal signal peptide, followed by a 12-amino acid activation peptide. The catalytic triad is made up of his45, asp93, and ser188.