I am trying to purify a his tagged protein using IMAC. The homologs of this protein purify very well. However, this protein precipitates on elution.
Buffer composition- 20mM Tris-HCl pH7.4, 500mM NaCl, 0.5M Imidazole-HCl pH7.4
Since the homologs are soluble I am not expecting any drastic changes in buffer compositions to be required - this might be a bit naive.
One theory I have is that the protein is eluting too concentrated - causing precipitation. Might it be worth eluting the protein into buffer to dilute the fractions and reduce the likelihood of precipitation?
This protein has a signal sequence which was cleaved during cloning. It might be that I have taken away some of the surface charge that makes the protein soluble. Something I will also check.
Any advice is much appreciated!