Purification of alcohol dehydrogenase from Drosophila by general-ligand affinity chromatography

A method for the purification of alcohol dehydrogenase from Drosophila melanogaster is described. The method makes use of 8-(6-aminohexyl)amino-5'-AMP, immobilized on Sepharose 4B, as an affinity ligand. Since alcohol dehydrogenase from Drosophila shows weak affinity for this column, a novel technique was developed to separate alcohol dehydrogenase from both unbound proteins and more strongly bound enzymes. The purification procedure is simple to operate and give a homogeneous preparation in good yield after only three steps.