Proteolysis of bacteriophage λ CII by Escherichia coli FtsH (HflB)

FtsH (HflB) is a conserved, highly specific, ATP-dependent protease for which a number of substrates are known. The enzyme participates in the phage λ lysis-lysogeny decision by degrading the lambda CII transcriptional activator and by its response to inhibition by the λ CIII gene product. In order to gain further insight into the mechanism of the enzymatic activity of FtsH (HflB), we identified the peptides generated following proteolysis of the pliage λ CII protein. It was found that FtsH (HflB) acts as an endopeptidase degrading CII into small peptides with limited amino acid specificity at the cleavage site. β-Casein, an unstructured substrate, is also degraded by FtsH (HflB), suggesting that protein structure may play a minor role in determining the products of proteolysis. The majority of the peptides produced were 13 to 20 residues long.