Vectors that facilitate the expression and purification of foreign peptides in Escherichia coli by fusion to maltose-binding protein.

Vectors were constructed that allow foreign peptides to be expressed in Escherichia coli as fusion proteins. The peptides are fused to the C terminus of maltose-binding protein (MBP), which allows them to be purified by the MBP's affinity to cross-linked amylose (starch). The fusion protein can be directed to the periplasm by including the leader sequence from the phoA gene on the vector.