To improve the efficiency of the glucoamylase signal peptide (GSP) of Saccharomyces diastaticus for the secretion of foreign proteins, hybrid plasmids containing one of four types of GSP mutant (m1, Pro(-18)-->Leu(-18); m2, Tyr(-13)-->Leu(-13); m3, Ser(-9)-->Leu(-9); m4, Asn(-5)-->Pro(-5)) were constructed and evaluated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using Bacillus endo-1,4-beta-D-glucanase (CMCase) as a reporter gene. CMCase secretion by m1, m2 and m3 GSP mutants was increased, likely resulting from a higher probability of the modified GSP to assume an alpha-helical structure. Especially in the case of m3, the substitution of Leu for a polar residue, Ser(-9), in the hydrophobic region resulted in approximately a twofold increase in extracellular CMCase activity. In mutant 4, which disrupts the alpha-helix of GSP, CMCase was less efficiently secreted.