Materials and methods for protein production

A cell comprising:

• a first exogenous nucleic acid construct comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding an aminolevulinate synthase (ALAS) protein operably linked to a first promoter element, wherein the ALAS protein comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 80% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 29, wherein the ALAS protein comprises at least a first heme responsive motif (HRM), wherein the first HRM comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:32 except for a mutation relative to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:32, wherein the mutation relative to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:32 in the first HRM corresponds to a mutation in residue 12 of SEQ ID NO:
• 29, and wherein the ALAS protein catalyzes the transformation of glycine and succinyl-CoA to aminolevulinic acid;
• and
• a second exogenous nucleic acid construct comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a heme-binding protein,
• wherein the second exogenous nucleic acid construct comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding the heme-binding protein is operably linked to the first promoter element or is operably linked to a second promoter element.