The chemical reactions and pathways resulting in the breakdown of a protein by the destruction of the native, active configuration, with or without the hydrolysis of peptide bonds. [ GOC:mah ]
Synonyms: protein breakdown cellular protein catabolism cellular protein degradation protein catabolism cellular protein breakdown protein degradation cellular protein catabolic process
Term information
goslim_generic, goslim_drosophila, prokaryote_subset, goslim_pombe, goslim_candida
This term refers to the breakdown of mature proteins. For cleavage events involved in generating a mature protein from a precursor, consider instead the term 'protein maturation ; GO:0051604' and its children.