Streptavidin (SAV) production by an E. coli ‘leaky mutant’ was established.
Product secretion was improved by cultivation at 30 °C and Triton<sup>®sup> supplementation.
bglA leader, constitutive bla promoter and full-length SAV gene were beneficial.
A bioreactor fed-batch process led to 2.6 μM of tetrameric SAV in 40 h (65.2 nM/h).
Less than 10% of biotin-blocked binding sites indicate a highly bioactive product.