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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Feb 20.
Published in final edited form as: Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2016 Jul 30;327:43–87. doi: 10.1016/bs.ircmb.2016.06.006

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Structure of caspases. All caspases have a large subunit and a small subunit, which are indispensible for protease activity. Caspases can be divided into two types: initiators and effectors. While the effector caspases (i.e., caspases-3, -6, and -7) have a short prodomain, the initiators have a long prodomain which plays a crucial role for proximity-induced activation mediated by the interaction with adaptor proteins. Caspases-1, -4, -5, and -12 are implicated in inflammation, whereas caspases-8/-10 and caspases-2/-9 initiate the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways, respectively. CARD; caspase recruitment domain, DED; death effector domain.