The VP60 capsid protein of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (60kDa) has been fused to the C-terminus of β-galactosidase and produced in E. coli from two related expression vectors. One of these vectors, carries a 429bp DNA segment encoding the N-terminus peptide of VP60, and directs the synthesis of a larger fusion that contains the entire viral protein. Both fusion proteins are efficiently cleaved at a presumed trypsin-like target site within the carboxy moiety of β-galactosidase (Arg 611-Thr 612), which is activated by the presence of the viral partner. In the larger fusion, VP60 is released by a cleavage within the linker region that affects about 10% of the chimeric proteins. In this situation, the resulting β-galactosidase-like fragment recovers its natural proteolytic stability. These results prove that cryptic cleavage sites in β-galactosidase can be efficiently activated in a fusion protein and suggest that this activation is based on reversible steric constraints generated by the fusion partner.