Expression of functional Thermoplasma acidophilum proteasomes in Escherichia coli

Abstract
The two genes encoding the constituent subunits of the Thermoplasma acidophilum proteasome were expressed in Escherichia coli yielding fully assembled molecules as shown by electron microscopy. The recombinant proteasomes were purified to homogeneity and ware shown to have proteolytic activity indistinguishable from proteasomes isolated from T. acidophilum.