Proteases (also called Proteolytic Enzymes, Peptidases, or Proteinases) are enzymes that hydrolyze the amide bonds within proteins or peptides. Most proteases act in a specific manner, hydrolyzing bonds at or adjacent to specific residues or a specific sequence of residues contained within the substrate protein or peptide. Proteases play an important role in most diseases and biological processes including prenatal and postnatal development, reproduction, signal transduction, the immune response, various autoimmune and degenerative diseases, and cancer. They are also an important research tool, frequently used in the analysis and production of proteins. Kex-2 cleaves at the carboxyl end of the recognition sequences Arg-Arg/X and Lys-Arg/X. Recombinant Yeast Kex-2 is a 60.4 kDa protease consisting of 558 amino acid residues.