Improved Procedure for a High-Yield Recovery of Enzymatically Active Recombinant Calf Chymosin from Escherichia coli Inclusion Bodies

Abstract The high-yield recovery of enzymatically active recombinant calf chymosin from Escherichia coli inclusion bodies was achieved by optimization of solubilization and renaturation conditions. The solubilization was carried out in 8 M urea at various pHs, at various temperatures, and for various periods of time. The following values were found optimal: 1 h at 31°C, pH 10.4. For successful correct refolding of solubilized prochymosin molecules it was found to be necessary to dilute the solution into an alkaline buffer (pH 10.7) in such a way that the final concentration of urea did not exceed 0.32 M and that of protein 0.2 75 mg/ml. Our optimized procedure gives about eight times higher yields of enzymatically active chymosin than the current published methods.