Galleria mellonella juvenile hormone binding protein (JHBP) is a single chain glycoprotein with two disulfide bonds and a molecular mass of 25,880 Da. This report describes the expression of JHBP in bacteria and yeast cells (Pichia pastoris). The expression in bacteria was low and the protein was rapidly degraded upon cell lysis. The expression of His(8)-tagged rJHBP (His(8)-rJHBP) in P. pastoris was high and the non-degraded protein was purified to homogeneity with high yield in a one-step immobilized Ni++ affinity chromatography. His(8)-rJHBP from P. pastoris contains one JH III binding site with K-D of 3.7 +/- 1.3 x 10(-7) M. The results suggest that P. pastoris is the preferred system for expression of His8-rJHBP in non-degraded fully active form. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.