Pholiota nameko (Pholiota microspore) tyrosinase is expressed as a latent 67-kDa pro-tyrosinase, comprising a 42-kDa N-terminal catalytic domain with a binuclear copper centre and a 25-kDa C-terminal domain and is activated by proteolytic digestion of the C-terminal domain. To investigate the role of the C-terminal processing domain of pro-tyrosinase, we constructed a recombinant tyrosinase lacking the C-terminal domain and four recombinant pro-tyrosinase mutants (F515G, H539N, L540G and Y543G) carrying substituted amino acid residues on the C-terminal domain. The recombinant tyrosinase lacking the C-terminal domain had no catalytic activity; whereas the mutant L540G was copper depleted, the other mutants had copper contents similar to that of the wildtype pro-tyrosinase. Proteolytic digestion activated the mutants H539N and Y543G following release of the C-terminal domain, and the resulting tyrosinases had higher K-m values for t-butyl catechol than the wild-type pro-tyrosinase. The mutants F515G and L540G were degraded by proteolytic digestion and yielded smaller proteins with no activity. These data suggest that the C-terminal processing domain of P. nameko pro-tyrosinase is essential for correct folding of the N-terminal catalytic domain and acts as an intramolecular chaperone during assembly of the active-site conformation.