The H-H-H-H-H-H motif is used as a tag on many recombinant proteins to facilitate purification. A system that has proven to be very successful relies on the insertion of a six histidine (His6) sequence in the N-terminus of the encoded protein, allowing for efficient coupling to Ni2+-chelating resins and purification by single step affinity chromatography. This polyhistidine sequence can then be removed by specific cleavage at sites recognized by enzymes such as thrombin or enterokinase, permitting the separation of the target protein from the polyhistidine tag.