Patent ID: 7531325

Claim:
A method for the preparation of a recombinant polypeptide, comprising a) transforming a non-human host cell an expression vector comprising: (1) a nucleic acid sequence capable of regulating transcription in a host cell, operatively linked to (2) a chimeric nucleic acid sequence encoding a fusion protein, wherein said chimeric nucleic acid sequence comprises (a) a nucleic acid sequence encoding a pro-peptide sequence comprising SEQ ID NO:10, linked in reading frame to (b) a nucleic acid sequence that is heterologous to the pro-peptide and that encodes the recombinant polypeptide, wherein the heterologous nucleic acid sequence is located immediately downstream of the nucleic acid sequence encoding the pro-peptide; operatively linked to (3) a nucleic acid sequence encoding a termination region functional in said host cell, b) growing the host cell to produce said fusion protein; c) obtaining said fusion protein from said non-human host cell, and d) contacting said fusion protein with a mature form of an autocatalytically maturing aspartic protease that cleaves the pro-peptide, whereby said pro-peptide is cleaved from said fusion protein to release said recombinant polypeptide.