ABSTRACT
Caspases, paracaspases and metacaspases are classifi ed according to the MEROPs database, https://merops.sanger.ac.uk, as members of the C14 family, clan CD. All the sequences in the same clan are evolutionarilyrelated, determined by similarities in protein tertiary structures and share
a similar protein fold. A clan consists of two letters, the fi rst designating the catalytic type, for example, C for cysteine while the second is a serial letter. The term family describes a group of peptidases that are shown by their primary structures to be evolutionary related and have a statistically signifi cant relationship in their amino acid sequence. The family name consists of the letter again indicating the catalytic type followed by a serial number of up to two digits (Meslin et al. 2011, Rawlings 2010).
