The main machinery responsible for cellular protein maintenance is the ubiquitin-proteasomal system, with its core particle the 20S proteasome. The main task of the system is a fast and efficient degradation of proteins not needed anymore in cellular metabolism. For this aim a complex system of regulators evolved, modifying the function of the 20S core proteasome. Here we summarize shortly the structure of the 20S proteasome as well as its associated regulator proteins.
Keywords: 20S proteasome; 26S proteasome; Proteasomal regulators.