An exopeptidase is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 produced in the pancreas

Pancreas

The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as a digestive organ, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that assist...

 that catalyses the removal of an amino acid from the end of a polypeptide chain. Exopeptidase cleaves the end of a polypeptide chain.
Aminopeptidase

Aminopeptidase

Aminopeptidase is a zinc-dependent enzyme produced and secreted by glands of the small intestine. It helps the enzymatic digestion of proteins. Additional digestive enzymes produced by these glands include dipeptidases, maltase, sucrase, lactase, and enterokinase.Aminopeptidases catalyze the...

, an enzyme in the brush border of the small intestine, will cleave a single amino acid from the aminoterminal. Carboxypeptidase

Carboxypeptidase

A carboxypeptidase is a protease enzyme that hydrolyzes the peptide bond of an amino acid residue at the carboxy-terminal end...

, which is a digestive enzyme present in pancreatic juice, will cleave a single amino acid from the carboxylic end of the peptide.

See also

• The Proteolysis Map
  The Proteolysis Map
  The Proteolysis MAP is an integrated web resource focused on proteases.-Rationale:PMAP is to aid the protease researchers in reasoning about proteolytic networks and metabolic pathways.-History and funding:...
  
  
• Endopeptidase
  Endopeptidase
  Endopeptidase or endoproteinase are proteolytic peptidases that break peptide bonds of nonterminal amino acids , in contrast to exopeptidases, which break peptide bonds from their end-pieces. For this reason, endopeptidases cannot break down peptides into monomers, while exopeptidases can break...
  
  
• Edman degradation
  Edman degradation
  Edman degradation, developed by Pehr Edman, is a method of sequencing amino acids in a peptide. In this method, the amino-terminal residue is labeled and cleaved from the peptide without disrupting the peptide bonds between other amino acid residues....
  
  
• Dansyl chloride
  Dansyl chloride
  Dansyl chloride or 5-naphthalene-1-sulfonyl chloride is a reagent that reacts with primary amino groups in both aliphatic and aromatic amines to produce stable blue- or blue-green–fluorescent sulfonamide adducts. Dansyl chloride is widely used to modify amino acids; specifically, protein sequencing...
  
  
• Protease
  Protease
  A protease is any enzyme that conducts proteolysis, that is, begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein....