Tobacco etch virus protease (TEVp) is frequently applied in the cleavage of fusion protein. However, production of TEV protease in Escherichia coil is hampered by low yield and poor solubility, and auto-cleavage of wild type TEVp gives rise to the loss-of-function. Previously it was reported that TEVp S219V displayed more stability, and TEVp variant containing T17S/N68D/177V and double mutant L56V/S135G resulted in the enhanced production and solubility, respectively. Here, we introduced T17S/N68D/177V in TEVp S219V to generate TEVpM1 and combined five amino acid mutations (T17S/L56V/N68D/177V/S135G) in TEVp S219V to create TEVpM2. Among TEVp S219V, and two constructed variants, TEVpM2 displayed highest solubility and catalytic activity in vivo, using EmGFP as the solubility reporter, and the designed fusion protein as in vivo substrate containing an N-terminal hexahistidine tagged GST, a peptide sequence for thrombin and TEV cut and E. coil diaminopropionate ammonia-lyase. The purified TEVp mutants fused with double hexahistidine-tag at N and C terminus showed highest yield, solubility and cleavage efficiency. Mutations of five amino acid residues in TEVpM2 slightly altered protein secondary structure conformed by circular dichroism assay. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.