The present invention relates to a microorganism variant having the ability to extracellularly produce heme, and more particularly to a metabolically engineered microorganism variant having the ability to extracellularly produce heme and a method of producing heme using the same. According to the present invention, heme, an organometallic compound which is increasingly used as a health food or food supplement for the treatment of porphyria, can be extracellularly secreted and produced in high yield using the microorganism variant, but not conventional chemical synthesis or enzymatic synthesis.

The present invention relates to a microorganism variant having the ability to extracellularly produce heme, and more particularly to a metabolically engineered microorganism variant having the ability to extracellularly produce heme and a method of producing heme using the same. According to the present invention, heme, an organometallic compound which is increasingly used as a health food or food supplement for the treatment of porphyria, can be extracellularly secreted and produced in high yield using the microorganism variant, but not conventional chemical synthesis or enzymatic synthesis.

Provided is a chimeric transcriptional activator for a methanol-inducible promoter, which at least comprises a first portion and a second portion, wherein: 1) the first portion comprises: i) a DNA binding domain; or ii) a DNA binding domain and a first transcription activation domain; and 2) the second portion comprises at least one second transcription activation domain. Further provided is a use of the chimeric transcriptional activator in enhancing foreign protein expression levels in a host cell.