The present invention relates generally to nucleic acid and amino acid sequences of a fusion polypeptide comprising a Mycobacterium tuberculosis polypeptide, and a heterologous polypeptide of interest, expression vectors and host cells comprising such nucleic acids, and methods for producing such fusion polypeptides. In particular, the invention relates to materials and methods of using such M. tuberculosis sequence as a fusion partner to facilitate the stable and high yield expression of recombinant heterologous polypeptides of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic origin.