All proteins end with a carboxyl terminus that has unique biophysical properties and is often disordered. Although there are examples of important C-termini functions, a more global role for the C-terminus is not yet established. In this review, we summarize research on C-termini, a unique region in proteins that cells exploit. Alternative splicing and proteolysis increase the diversity of proteins and peptides in cells with unique C-termini. The C-termini of proteins contain minimotifs, short peptides with an encoded function generally characterized as binding, posttranslational modifications, and trafficking. Many of these activities are specific to minimotifs on the C-terminus. Approximately 13% of C-termini in the human proteome have a known minimotif, and the majority, if not all of the remaining termini have conserved motifs inferring a function that remains to be discovered. C-termini, their predictions, and their functions are collated in the C-terminome, Proteus, and Terminus Oriented Protein Function INferred Database (TopFIND) database/web systems. Many C-termini are well conserved, and some have a known role in health and disease. We envision that this summary of C-termini will guide future investigation of their biochemical and physiological significance.

所有蛋白质均以具有独特的生物物理特性且经常无序的羧基末端终止。尽管有一些重要的C末端功能的例子，但C末端尚未发挥更全面的作用。在这篇综述中，我们总结了对C末端的研究，C末端是细胞利用的蛋白质的独特区域。可变的剪接和蛋白水解作用增加了具有独特C末端的细胞中蛋白质和肽的多样性。蛋白质的C末端含有微型基序，即具有编码功能的短肽，通常以结合，翻译后修饰和运输为特征。这些活动中有许多是特定于C末端的微型基序的。在人类蛋白质组中，约有13％的C末端具有已知的微型基序，并且大多数，如果不是的话，所有剩余的末端都具有保守的基序，从而推断出仍有待发现的功能。C末端，它们的预测及其功能在C末端蛋白质组，Proteus和基于终点的蛋白质功能推断数据库（TopFIND）数据库/网络系统中进行了整理。许多C末端保存完好，其中一些在健康和疾病中具有已知作用。我们预想，C-末端的这一总结将指导他们对其生化和生理意义的进一步研究。