BACE-2 is an aspartic protease that shares sequence similarity with BACE-1, the major β-secretase for generation of Aβ peptide in neurons. However, BACE-2 differs from BACE-1 in several aspects including pro-enzyme activation, substrate binding sites, transcriptional regulation, and function in Aβ peptide production.The domain structure of mouse BACE-2 consists of a signal peptide (aa 1 - 19), pro (aa 20-62) and a mature chain (aa 63 - 514) that consists a transmembrane domain and a cytoplasmic tail. The C-terminal region (aa 463 - 514) was replaced by a His tag in the rmBACE-2 that also contained a His residue at the position of Tyr 357. The purified rmBACE-2 started at Ala 63, the same residue shown at the N-terminus of the human active BACE-2.
