in humans and mice (see: MALT1), where it plays a major role in several pro-inflammatory pathways in innate- and adaptive- immunity. The distantly related zebrafish PCASP3 show conserved MALT1-like activity in NF-kappaB activation and protease substrate specificity, indicating that these functions were present in the last common ancestor of the three vertebrate paracaspase paralogs. See also The Proteolysis Map MALT1 Caspase Metacaspase MALT lymphoma References Programmed cell death Eukaryote proteins EC 3.4.22