Word
protease
Phoneticspro·tease
US/ˈpɹoʊtiˌeɪz/
UK/pɹˈəʊteɪs/
Definition
n. a type of enzyme that breaks down proteins into smaller pieces. Your body uses these to help digest food, and scientists use them in things like laundry detergent.
n. an enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins, breaking them down into amino acids or smaller polypeptides. Often used in industrial applications such as food processing and textile manufacturing.
Examples
“Protease helps your body break down meat into nutrients.”
“The new laundry detergent contains a heat-stable protease that removes protein-based stains like grass and blood.”
“Researchers are investigating how specific protease inhibitors can block the replication of certain viruses by preventing the cleavage of essential viral proteins.”
Examples
simple
“Protease helps your body break down meat into nutrients.”
contextual
“The new laundry detergent contains a heat-stable protease that removes protein-based stains like grass and blood.”
complex
“Researchers are investigating how specific protease inhibitors can block the replication of certain viruses by preventing the cleavage of essential viral proteins.”
Real-World Examples
“The researchers prepared proteins from raw peanuts and treated them with figleaf gourd protease under different conditions.” Etymology
From prote(in) + -ase.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/protease