Patent ID: 7632658

Claim:
A method of producing a cleaved, polypeptide comprising culturing gram-negative bacterial host cells harboring (a) an endogenous or heterologous nucleic acid encoding an aminopeptidase having at least 95% sequence identity to the aminopeptidase b2324 set forth by amino acid residues 1 to 688 of SEQ ID NO:2 and (b) a heterologous nucleic acid encoding the corresponding uncleaved polypeptide that has an added amino acid at its N-terminus, wherein the culturing is under conditions (i) so as to express or overexpress the aminopeptidase encoded by the nucleic acid of (a), (ii) so as to express the uncleaved polypeptide encoded by (b), and (iii) wherein the uncleaved polypeptide and aminopeptidase are in contact after expression, so as to produce the cleaved polypeptide.