Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 50 (USP50)

The ubiquitin (Ub) pathway involves three sequential enzymatic steps that facilitate the conjugation of Ub and Ub-like molecules to specific protein substrates. Through the use of a wide range of enzymes that can add or remove ubiquitin, the Ub pathway controls many intracellular processes such as signal transduction, transcriptional activation and cell cycle progression. USP50 is a 339 amino acid protein that belongs to the peptidase C19 family of proteins. Weakly expressed in a few tissues, USP50 contains all of the active residues necessary to function as a deubiquitinating enzyme, but it appears to be catalytically inactive. The gene ecoding USP50 maps to human chromosome 15, which houses over 700 genes and comprises nearly 3% of the human genome.