Purification and characterization of truncated ribonuclease inhibitor.

A recombinant pig ribonuclease inhibitor (delta r-RI) lacking 90 or 93 N-terminal amino acid residues was isolated from a preparation of recombinant inhibitor. The kinetic parameters for the inhibition of ribonuclease A by delta r-RI were determined and found to be only slightly altered in comparison with the full-length inhibitor. The deletion did, however, affect the surface properties of RI. The results are discussed in relation to those obtained by Lee & Vallee [(1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 1879-1883].