Pepsin

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Pepsin is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides and amino acids. It is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, where it helps digest the proteins in food. Pepsin is an aspartic protease having a catalytic aspartate in its active site. Pepsin is one of three endopeptidases (enzymes cleaving proteins in the middle) in the human digestive system, including chymotrypsin and trypsin. There are also exopeptidases which remove individual amino acids at both ends of proteins (carboxypeptidases produced by the pancreas and aminopeptidases secreted by the small intestine). During digestion, these enzymes, each of which is specialized in severing bonds between particular types of amino acids, collaborate to break down dietary proteins into their component peptides and amino acids, which can be readily absorbed by the small intestine. The cleavage specificity of pepsin is broad, but some amino acids like tyrosine, phenylalanine...

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