USP14
Encyclopedia
Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 14 is an enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that in humans is encoded by the USP14 gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

.

This gene encodes a member of the ubiquitin-specific processing (UBP) family of proteases that is a deubiquitinating enzyme
Deubiquitinating enzyme
Deubiquitinating enzymes are a large group of proteases that regulate ubiquitin-dependent metabolic pathways by cleaving ubiquitin-protein bonds. DUBs are also commonly referred to as deubiquitinating peptidases, deubiquitinating isopeptidases, deubiquitinases, ubiquitin proteases, ubiquitin...

 (DUB) with His and Cys domains. This protein is located in the cytoplasm
Cytoplasm
The cytoplasm is a small gel-like substance residing between the cell membrane holding all the cell's internal sub-structures , except for the nucleus. All the contents of the cells of prokaryote organisms are contained within the cytoplasm...

 and cleaves the ubiquitin
Ubiquitin
Ubiquitin is a small regulatory protein that has been found in almost all tissues of eukaryotic organisms. Among other functions, it directs protein recycling.Ubiquitin can be attached to proteins and label them for destruction...

 moiety
Moiety
Moiety may refer to:* Moiety , a part or functional group of a molecule* Moiety , either of two groups into which a society is divided* An Australian Aboriginal kinship group* Native Hawaiian realm ruled by a Mo'i or Ali'i...

from ubiquitin-fused precursors and ubiquitinylated proteins. Mice with a mutation that results in reduced expression of the ortholog of this protein are retarded for growth, develop severe tremors by 2 to 3 weeks of age followed by hindlimb paralysis and death by 6 to 10 weeks of age. Alternate transcriptional splice variants, encoding different isoforms, have been characterized.

Further reading

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