The rhomboids are a well-conserved family of intramembrane serine proteases, which are unrelated to the classical soluble serine proteases. Their active site is buried within the plane of the membrane, and they cleave substrates in or near transmembrane domains. Although recently discovered, it is becoming clear that rhomboids control many important cellular functions. This review briefly describes recent biochemical and structural work that begins to explain how proteolysis occurs in a hydrophobic environment, but then focuses more extensively on the emerging biological functions of rhomboids. Although the function of most rhomboids is not yet known, they have already been implicated in growth factor signaling, mitochondrial function, host cell invasion by apicomplexan parasites, and protein translocation across membranes in bacteria. By exploiting cellular membrane trafficking machinery, rhomboids have evolved novel strategies to regulate proteolysis.

中文翻译：

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菱形蛋白酶及其生物学功能。

菱形是一个保守的膜内丝氨酸蛋白酶家族，与经典的可溶性丝氨酸蛋白酶无关。它们的活性位点被埋在膜平面内，并且它们在跨膜结构域内或附近切割底物。虽然最近发现，但菱形肌控制许多重要的细胞功能已经变得越来越清楚。这篇综述简要描述了最近的生化和结构工作，这些工作开始解释蛋白质水解如何在疏水环境中发生，但随后更广泛地关注菱形的新兴生物学功能。尽管大多数菱形的功能尚不清楚，但它们已经与生长因子信号传导、线粒体功能、顶复体寄生虫对宿主细胞的侵袭以及细菌中蛋白质的跨膜易位有关。