Enterokinase (EK) is an enzyme produced by cells of the duodenum and involved in human digestion. It plays a role of turning trypsinogen to its active form trypsin, and indirectly activates the pancreatic digestive enzymes. Enterokinase is a specific protease that cleaves after a lysine preceded by four aspartic acids: Asp-Asp-Asp-Asp-Lys(DDDDK↑). Enterokinase will not work if the recognition site is followed by a proline. rbEKhas the highest activity than EK of other species and is used wildly in biochemical applications. rbEK with 6 × His-tag binds with Ni2+ affinity chromatography and was designed for removing from digestion system.
Recombinant Bovine Enterokinase (His-tagged) (rbEK) as the light chain is a single glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 200 amino acids, 6 × His at C-terminus. A fully biologically active molecule, rbEK has a molecular mass of 40 kDa and is obtained by proprietary chromatographic techniques at GenScript.