SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR INCREASED PRODUCTION OF RECOMBINANT BIOPOLYMERS VIA GENOME ENGINEERING AND DOWNREGULATION OF BASAL EXPRESSION

Recombinant E. coli strains and synthetic protein sequence designs are leveraged for production of disordered polypeptides such as spidroins and elastin-like peptides (ELPs). These disordered polypeptides, the high-titer production of which has proven difficult, include repeating structural motifs from a small selection of amino acid residues, resulting in lack of well-defined tertiary and quaternary structure. The recombinant E. coli include expression vectors with genes encoding for the disordered polypeptide product. Expression of these genes is controlled by a promoter that downregulates and substantially inhibits basal expression in the recombinant bacteria. Further, the recombinant bacteria include mutations to one or more stress-response genes from wild-type E. coli, such as yggw, yedv, yedw, yedy, spec, speb, uspc, hcha, loip, mltc, envz, ompr, yhgf, or hupb. The recombinant E. coli enable production of high titers of disordered protein product while minimizing the toxic effects thereof on the host.