The present disclosure is directed to a method for screening a
signal peptide for efficient expression and
secretion of a
heterologous polypeptide in mammalian cells, the method comprising the steps of: providing a
pool of viral expression vectors encoding a polypeptide of interest with various candidate
signal peptides, wherein each viral
expression vector of said
pool comprises at least a
polynucleotide encoding a
fusion protein, said
polynucleotide comprising: i) a
promoter, ii) a sequence encoding a
signal peptide, iii) a sequence encoding the polypeptide of interest, iv) optionally a sequence encoding an
epitope tag, and v) a sequence encoding a C-terminal
signal peptide for glycosylphosphatidylinositol, GPI, attachment or a sequence encoding a
transmembrane domain; transforming host cells with said
pool of viral vectors so that each host
cell is preferably transformed on average by only one
viral vector from said pool; expressing said
fusion protein in said host cells in order to produce fusion proteins which are GPI-anchored to the host
cell surface or alternatively which are anchored to the host
cell surface by a
transmembrane domain of said
fusion protein; contacting said host cells with a first binding
reagent, preferably an
antibody, specifically binding to said polypeptide of interest or alternatively if said
epitope tag is present in the fusion
protein with a first binding
reagent specifically binding to said
epitope tag, wherein said binding
reagent is optionally labelled with a fluorescent
label or other means of detection; dividing the transformed host cells into at least two groups based on the
fluorescence characteristics of each host cell; and performing next generation sequencing to the group of host cells showing the most efficient
fusion protein expression in order to identify an optimal
signal peptide for the polypeptide of interest in the host cell. The present disclosure is also directed to a vector, a host cell or
a DNA library for use in said method.