Granzyme K (GZMK)

Granzyme K is a member of a group of related serine proteases from the cytoplasmic granules of cytotoxic lymphocytes. Cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells share the remarkable ability to recognize, bind, and lyse specific target cells. They are thought to protect their host by lysing cells bearing on their surface 'nonself' antigens, usually peptides or proteins resulting from infection by intracellular pathogens. The protein described here lacks consensus sequences for N-glycosylation present in other granzymes.Both the rat and the human equivalent gene TRYP2 shared considerable homology and common serine protease sequence features with human granzyme A . By fluorescence in situ hybridization, Baker et al. (1994) demonstrated that the TRYP2 gene, like HFSP, maps to 5q11-q12.