Caspases, Paracaspases, and Metacaspases: Methods and Protocols is a collection of laboratory protocols covering current methods that are employed to measure and detect activities of these proteases in diverse biological systems, ranging from unicellular organisms to mammals. Broken into two parts, the first part focuses on methods to measure, detect, and inhibit activation and activity of a subset of or specific caspases in vitro and in several model systems and organisms, primarily in the context of programmed cell death. The second part of the book provides experimental protocols for purification and in vitro and in vivo analysis of yeast, protozoan and plant metacaspases, as well as of a human paracaspase MALT1.
Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, the chapters include the kind of detailed description and implementation advice that is crucial for getting optimal results in the laboratory. Authoritative and practical, Caspases, Paracaspases, and Metacaspases: Methods and Protocols seeks to aid scientists easy-to-follow techniques.
Part I: Caspases
1. General in vitro Caspase Assay Procedures Dave Boucher, Catherine Duclos, Jean-Bernard Denault
2. Positional Scanning Substrate Combinatorial Library (PS-SCL) Approach to Define Caspase Substrate Specificity Marcin Poreba, Aleksandra Strozyk, Paulina Kasperkiewicz, Marcin Drag
3. Global Identification of Caspase Substrates using PROTOMAP (PROtein TOpography and Migration Analysis Platform) Melissa M. Dix, Gabriel M. Simon, Benjamin F. Cravatt
4. Caspase-2 Protocols Loretta Dorstyn and Sharad Kumar
5. Caspase-14 Protocols Mami Yamamoto-Tanaka and Toshihiko Hibino
6. Caspase Protocols in Caenorhabditis elegans Eui Seung Lee & Ding Xue
7. Detecting Caspase Activity in Drosophila Larval Imaginal Discs Caitlin E. Fogarty and Andreas Bergmann
8. Methods for the Study of Caspase Activation in the Xenopus laevis Oocyte and Egg Extract Francis McCoy, Rashid Darbandi, and Leta K. Nutt
9. Caspase Protocols in Mice Varsha Kaushal, Christian Herzog, Randy S. Haun, and Gur P. Kaushal
10. Measurement of Caspase Activation in Mammalian Cell Cultures Magnus Olsson and Boris Zhivotovsky
Part II: Paracaspases and Metacaspases
11. Detection and Measurement of Paracaspase MALT1 Activity Stephan Hailfinger, Christiane Pelzer, and Margot Thome
12. Leishmania Metacaspase: an Arginine-Specific Peptidase Ricardo Martin, Iveth Gonzalez and Nicolas Fasel
13. Purification, Characterization, and Crystallisation of Trypanosoma Metacaspases Karen McLuskey, Catherine X. Moss, and Jeremy C. Mottram
14. Monitoring the Proteostasis Function of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Metacaspase Yca1 Amit Shrestha, Robin E. C. Lee, and Lynn A. Megeney
15. Plant Metacaspase Activation and Activity Elena A. Minina, Simon Stael, Frank Van Breusegem, and Peter V. Bozhkov
16. Preparation of Arabidopsis thaliana Seedling Proteomes for Identifying Metacaspase Substrates by N-terminal COFRADIC Liana Tsiatsiani, Simon Stael, Petra Van Damme, Frank Van Breusegem, and Kris Gevaert