In silico analysis of different signal peptides for the secretory production of recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor in Escherichia coli.

•The rhKGF (Palifermin) is a fairly unstable protein due to its high aggregation propensity.•One strategy to overcome protein aggregation is secretory production.•Secretory production of proteins in E.coli requires a suitable signal peptide which should be stable, and soluble in the fusion state with the target protein, and cleavable of the native protein after periplasmic translocation.•Computational analysis of the signal peptides physicochemical properties identified Sec-B dependent OmpC, Bla, and StaI and SRP dependent TolB signal peptides as the best SP candidates for rhKGF.•mRNA secondary structure is an important feature of coding sequence affecting its secretion which was good and capable of being optimized for the best SP candidates.