Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), which converts L-tyrosine to L-DOPA, is a rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of catecholamines; its activity is regulated by feedback inhibition by catecholamine products including dopamine. To investigate the specific portion of the N-terminus of TH that determines the efficiency of dopamine inhibition, wild-type and N-terminal 35-, 38-, and 44-amino acid-deleted mutants (del-35, del-38, and del-44, respectively) of human TH type 1 were expressed as a maltose binding protein fusion in Escherichia coli and purified as a tetrameric form by affinity and size-exclusion chromatography. The fused-form wild-type enzyme possessed almost the same specific enzymatic activity as the previously reported recombinant nonfused form. Although maximum velocities of all N-terminus-deleted forms were about one-fourth of the wild-type value, there was no difference in Michaelis constants for L-tyrosine or (6R)-(L-erythro-1',2'-dihydroxypropyl)-2-amino-4-hydroxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahy dropteridine (6RBPH4) among the four enzymes. The iron contents incorporated into the three N-terminus-deleted mutants were significantly lower than that of wild type. However, there was no substantial difference in incorporated iron contents among the three mutants. The deletion of up to no less than 38 amino acid residues in the N-terminus made the enzyme more resistant to dopamine inhibition than the wild-type or del-35 TH form. Dopamine bound to the del-38 more than to the del-35 TH form. However, when incubation with dopamine was followed by further inhibition with the cofactor 6RBPH4 dopamine was expelled more readily from the del-38 than from the del-35 TH form. These observations suggest that the amino acid sequence Gly36-Arg37-Arg38 plays a key role in determining the competition between dopamine and 6RBPH4 and affects the efficiency of dopamine inhibition of the catalytic activity.