TEV protease is a cysteine protease used to cleave fusion tags from recombinant proteins.It is expressed using an E. coli expression system. It specifically recognizes the amino acid sequence ENLYFQ▼S, but tolerates amino acids G, A, M, C, or H at the P1' position. TEV protease maintains activity in the pH range of 6.0–9.0, with reduced or absent enzyme activity at pH ≤ 5.0, and is often used in affinity purification steps to remove His, GST, or other fusion tags. To maximize protein activity and structure, cleavage reactions are typically performed overnight at 4°C.