Bacterial resistance to aminoglycosides continues to escalate and is widely recognized as a serious health threat, contributing to interest in understanding the mechanisms of resistance. One important mechanism of streptomycin modification is through ATP dependent O-adenylation, catalyzed by streptomycin adenylyltransferase (SMATase). The aim of this study was to purify the recombinant SMATase by Ni2+-IDA-His bind resin column chromatography. Thioredoxin-His6-tagged SMATase fusion protein was produced in a bacterial intracellular expression system mainly in a soluble form. The purified fusion protein showed a single band on SDS-PAGE corresponding to 49 kDa. The recovery of fusion protein was 47% with ninefold purification. The fusion system provided a single step, easy and very rapid purification of SMATase and is suitable for obtaining a highly purified functional protein of interest. The fusion does not affect the functionality of the protein. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.