Metacaspase Research at the Van Breusegem Lab 

Metacaspases (MCs) are a family of cysteine proteases discovered due to their structural similarity to animal caspases. Unlike caspases, however, metacaspases are found exclusively in non-metazoan organisms and have a unique ability to cleave proteins at lysine and arginine residues. MCs are categorized into three types based on their domain architecture: Type-I and Type-II MCs are present in plants, while Type-III MCs are specific to algae.

Why a focus on retrograde signaling in plants? Biological systems must respond rapidly to both external and internal stimuli to maintain homeostasis, and repair damage. To allow rapid responses, biology often relies on post-translational modifications of specific proteins to effect changes in activity, function, localization, or stability of pre-existing proteins. Several studies have shown that chloroplast and mitochondrial functions are direct target of stresses, from changes in the proteome, altering organellar abundance or modification of large-scale changes in the transcriptome.