10-Deacetylbaccatin III-10-O-acetyltransferase (10-DABT) catalyzes the formation of baccatin III, which is all immediate diterpenoid precursor of Taxol. A cDNA encoding 10-DABT was cloned from Taxus baccata by using RT-PCR and screening a cDNA library. A study of its heterologous overexpression in Escherichia coli was carried out. To get high-level expression of recombinant enzyme, three kinds of IPTG inducible fusion expression systems (with glutathione S-transferase (GST), hexahistidine (6 x His), and biotinylated tag) were used, and results of expression were compared. Fusion 10-DABT with different tags was expressed with diverse expression levels and solubility in the three systems. Optimum IPTG concentration, temperature, and inducing time for producing recombinant enzymes were found. Under higher IPTG concentration (up to 1 mM), the highest level of expression for fusion protein was obtained in the 6 x His fusion system with phage T5 promoter, but expressed products were only partially soluble. With lower IPTG concentration (less than 0.5 mM), the highest expression was detected in the GST fusion system with tat, promoter, and the lowest level of expression appeared in the biotinylated fusion system. The expression level in the latter system did not differ dramatically with a range of different inducer concentrations. GST and 6 x His fusion proteins were mainly soluble in aqueous solutions and Triton X-100 improved the solubility of biotinylated fusion proteins (inferring this protein is membrane-associated). Fusion proteins could only be partially purified by a single affinity chromatography step for all three systems. Glutathione-coupled matrix and streptavidin-conjugated resin have higher specificity than Ni-NTA resin, and elution conditions were shown to affect enzyme activity. Three kinds of recombinant 10-DABT with different tags showed enzyme activity, but total enzyme activity was lost as a result of the affinity chromatography step. Thrombin and Factor Xa could be used for site-specific cleavage of fusion proteins, but the incubation temperature affected enzyme activity of recombinant enzymes. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.