The members of this family are enzymes that cleave peptides. These proteases require zinc for catalysis.

1: Evolutionary families of metallopeptidases. Rawlings ND, Barrett AJ; Meth Enzymol 1995;248:183-228. PMID:7674922

2: The NMR structure of the inhibited catalytic domain of human stromelysin-1. Gooley PR, O'Connell JF, Marcy AI, Cuca GC, Salowe SP, Bush BL, Hermes JD, Esser CK, Hagmann WK, Springer JP, et al; Nat Struct Biol 1994;1:111-118. PMID:7656014