Purification of a Thermostable Recombinant Sulfolobus solfataricus Esterase Expressed in a Mesophilic Host

The purification of a thermostable esterase expressed in Escherichia coli was investigated using thermoprecipitation of unclarified cell homogenates followed by after applying the heat-treated lysate to phenyl-sepharose column, and elution with detergent. Heat treatment at $70^{cdot}C$ was capable of removing to E. coli proteins. Specially, the thermoprecipitation with 15% polyethylene glycol 8000 can remove host proteins and nucleic acids efficiently. Various detergents were used to recover the esterase, which was strongly bound to phenyl-sepharose resin. Triton X-100, non-ionic detergent, was found to be the most efficient of all tested detergents.