Abstract
Soybean protein consists of two major components $\beta$-conglycinin and glycinin which together consti-tute 70% of the total seed storage protein at maturity. $\beta$-Conglycinin is trimeric glycoprotein and for-med by the assembly of various combinations of three subunits $\alpha$,$\alpha$' and $\beta$ which have molecular weig-hts of 69,000, 72,000 and 42,000, respectively. Recently $\beta$-conglycinin was identified as powerful LDL lip-oprotein receptor activation hypercholesterolemia and major allergenic proteins. To investigate these reasons we constructed an expression system of cDNA encoding $\alpha$-subunit of $\beta$-conglycinin in Escherichia coli and purified the expressed protein. The pro-$\beta$-conglycinin synthesized in Escherichia coli BL 21 (DE3)comprised approximately 15% of the total bacterial proteins and the expressed protein are formed sol-uble and trimer such as native protein in Escherichia coli cells. The highly expressed protein was purified to homogeneity by salt precipitation with 20~40 % ammonium sulfate ion-exchange chromatography with Q-sepharose and hydrophobic column chromatography with Butyltoyopearl.