Several endogenous genes have been identified in Escherichia coli, the overexpression of which increases recombinant peptide production. Increasing the copy number of aroB, aroK, proB, or crl increases the amount of a recombinant peptide produced by a host cell. Recombinant host cells comprising at least one chimeric genetic construct encoding a peptide of interest and at least one genetic modification that increases recombinant peptide production are provided as well as methods of using such recombinant host cells