Proteasome

The proteasome complex is a highly sophisticated protease complex present in all eukaryotes and is one of the major degradation machineries in eukaryotic cells.  It terminates the existence of thousands of short-lived, damaged, misfolded or otherwise obsolete proteins and plays pivotal roles in protein quality control and other vital processes in the cell.  The proteasome complex is known to collaborate with ubiquitin, which polymerizes to form a marker for regulated proteolysis in eukaryotic cells.   Protein degradation by proteasomes plays a major role in the regulation of a wide range of basic cellular processes.

Further reading

Tanaka (2009). The proteasome: overview of structure and functions. Proc. Japan Academy. Series B Physical and Biological sciences 85(1) 12 PMID: 19145068

Manasanch and Orlowski (2017) Proteasome inhibitors in cancer therapy. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 14 417 PMID: 28117417

Kors et al (2019) Regulation of Proteasome Activity by (Post-)transcriptional Mechanisms.  Front, Molecular Biosciences 6 48 PMID: 31380390