Purification, chracterization, and inhibition of peptide deformylase from Escherichia coli

An overexpression and purification procedure is shown to produce greater than 50mg of pure highly active Escherichia coli peptide deformylase from a liter of cell culture. The catalytic properties were determined and it was found that some divalent metal chelators and dithiols were potent inhibitors of peptide deformylase.