Ultrasound-assisted l-cysteine whole-cell bioconversion by recombinant Escherichia coli with tryptophan synthase

l-Cysteine is widely used in food, medicine, and cosmetics. In this study, a recombinant Escherichia coli whole-cell system with tryptophan synthase was used to complete the biological transformation of l-serine to l-cysteine, and bioconversion of l-cysteine was investigated by tryptophan synthase. The biotransformation of l-cysteine was optimized by response surface methodology. The optimal conditions obtained are 0.13 mol·L−1 l-serine, 75 min, 130 W ultrasound operation, where the V max of tryptophan synthase is 25.27 ± 0.16 (mmol·h−1·(g-cells)−1). The V max of tryptophan synthase for the biosynthesis without ultrasound is 12.91 ± 0.34 (mmol·h−1·(g-cells)−1). Kinetic analysis of the recombinant Escherichia coli whole-cell system with tryptophan synthase also showed that under the ultrasound treatment, the K m values of l-cysteine biosynthesis increase from 1.342 ± 0.11 mM for the shaking biotransformation to 2.555 ± 0.13 mM for ultrasound operation. The yield of l-cysteine reached 91% after 75 min of treatment after 130 W ultrasound, which is 1.9-fold higher than no ultrasound.

Construction of a third NAD+de novo biosynthesis pathway

Only two de novo biosynthetic routes to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) have been described, both of which start from a proteinogenic amino acid and are tightly controlled. Here we establish a C3N pathway starting from chorismate in Escherichia coli as a third NAD+de novo biosynthesis pathway. Significantly, the C3N pathway yielded extremely high cellular concentrations of NAD(H) in E. coli. Its utility in cofactor engineering was demonstrated by introducing the four-gene C3N module to cell factories to achieve higher production of 2,5-dimethylpyrazine and develop an efficient C3N-based whole-cell bioconversion system for preparing chiral amines. The wide distribution and abundance of chorismate in most kingdoms of life implies a general utility of the C3N pathway for modulating cellular levels of NAD(H) in versatile organisms.

High-Level Conversion of l-lysine into Cadaverine by Escherichia coli Whole Cell Biocatalyst Expressing Hafnia alvei l-lysine Decarboxylase

Cadaverine is a C5 diamine monomer used for the production of bio-based polyamide 510. Cadaverine is produced by the decarboxylation of l-lysine using a lysine decarboxylase (LDC). In this study, we developed recombinant Escherichia coli strains for the expression of LDC from Hafnia alvei. The resulting recombinant XBHaLDC strain was used as a whole cell biocatalyst for the high-level bioconversion of l-lysine into cadaverine without the supplementation of isopropyl β-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) for the induction of protein expression and pyridoxal phosphate (PLP), a key cofactor for an LDC reaction. The comparison of results from enzyme characterization of E. coli and H. alvei LDC revealed that H. alvei LDC exhibited greater bioconversion ability than E. coli LDC due to higher levels of protein expression in all cellular fractions and a higher specific activity at 37 °C (1825 U/mg protein > 1003 U/mg protein). The recombinant XBHaLDC and XBEcLDC strains were constructed for the high-level production of cadaverine. Recombinant XBHaLDC produced a 1.3-fold higher titer of cadaverine (6.1 g/L) than the XBEcLDC strain (4.8 g/L) from 10 g/L of l-lysine. Furthermore, XBHaLDC, concentrated to an optical density (OD600) of 50, efficiently produced 136 g/L of cadaverine from 200 g/L of l-lysine (97% molar yield) via an IPTG- and PLP-free whole cell bioconversion reaction. Cadaverine synthesized via a whole cell biocatalyst reaction using XBHaLDC was purified to polymer grade, and purified cadaverine was successfully used for the synthesis of polyamide 510. In conclusion, an IPTG- and PLP-free whole cell bioconversion process of l-lysine into cadaverine, using recombinant XBHaLDC, was successfully utilized for the production of bio-based polyamide 510, which has physical and thermal properties similar to polyamide 510 synthesized from chemical-grade cadaverine.