Sequence-specific proteases have proven to be versatile building blocks for tools that report or control cellular function. Reporting methods link protease activity to biochemical signals, whereas control methods rely on engineering proteases to respond to exogenous inputs such as light or chemicals. In turn, proteases have inherent control abilities, as their native functions are to release, activate or destroy proteins by cleavage, with the irreversibility of proteolysis allowing sustained downstream effects. As a result, protease-based synthetic circuits have been created for diverse uses such as reporting cellular signaling, tuning protein expression, controlling viral replication and detecting cancer states. Here, we comprehensively review the development and application of protease-based methods for reporting and controlling cellular function in eukaryotes.

序列特异性蛋白酶已被证明是报告或控制细胞功能的工具的通用构建基块。报告方法将蛋白酶的活性与生化信号联系起来，而控制方法则依赖工程化的蛋白酶来响应诸如光或化学物质的外源输入。反过来，蛋白酶具有内在的控制能力，因为其天然功能是通过裂解来释放，激活或破坏蛋白质，而蛋白水解的不可逆性则可产生持续的下游效应。结果，已经创建了基于蛋白酶的合成电路用于多种用途，例如报告细胞信号，调节蛋白质表达，控制病毒复制和检测癌症状态。这里，