The human heart muscle carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (M-CPTI) gene was expressed at high levels from a strain of the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris containing approximately 24 copies of the expression vector. Levels of M-CPTI were more than ten-fold higher than previously reported by our group with a single-copy strain (Arch. Biochem. Biophys., in press) and were sufficient to perform reconstitution studies on the membrane protein, a key step in purification and structural analysis of the enzyme. Solubilization of yeast mitochondria containing M-CPTI in 5% Triton X-100 abolished M-CPTI activity. The detergent-inactivated M-CPTI was then reconstituted by removal of the detergent in the presence of phospholipids. The reconstituted proteoliposomes exhibited M-CPTI activity of 2.4 nmol palmitoylcarnitine formed/mg protein/min, a recovery of 23% of the activity present in the starting mitochondrial preparation. The malonyl-CoA sensitivity of the reconstituted reactivated M-CPTI was 88%. This is the first demonstration of direct reactivation of malonyl-CoA-sensitive M-CPTI activity from solubilized materials from any organism. Previously, M-CPTI was presumed to be irreversibly inactivated by detergents.