Deimination in ocular tissues: Present and future

Abstract

Deimination refers to the posttranslational conversion of protein-bound arginines into protein-bound citrullines, catalyzed by peptidyl arginine deiminase (PAD) enzymes (Vossenaar et al. 2003). Lack of a carrier tRNA for citrulline has established deimination as a posttranslational modification. Deimination and citrullination are interchangeably used for conversion of arginine into citrulline. To distinguish free arginine citrullination from protein-bound citrullination, we prefer referring to the latter as deimination (Bhattacharya 2009). Throughout this chapter we use deimination to refer to the conversion of protein-bound arginine modification into citrulline.