protein_function: Important for the overall degradation of proteins inlysosomes.
Cathepsin L is an important lysosomal endopeptidase enzyme which is involved in the initiation of protein degradation. It also shows the most potent collagenolytic and elastinolytic activity in vitro of any of the cathepsins. The gene is mapped to 9q21-q22. It is a member of the Peptidase C1 family, which play an important role in diverse processes including normal lysosome mediated protein turnover, antigen and proprotein processing, and apoptosis. Cathepsin L has been reported in many organisms including fish, birds and mammals.