Structure and function of the proteasome regulatory particle

The archeal Proteasome Activating Nucleotidase (PAN) exhibits structural homology to the eukaryotic 19S regulatory particle (RP) and performs a similar set of essential functions including substrate binding, unfolding and translocation. Therefore, we utilize PAN's to study the structure-function relationship in ATP dependent protein degradation. This analysis offers major advantages over the eukaryotic proteasome regulatory complex, and provides a powerful framework for systematic investigation on the mechanism of the proteasomal function.