Bioproduction of vanillin using an organic solvent-tolerant Brevibacillus agri 13

A comprehensive review of eclectic approaches to the biological synthesis of vanillin and their application towards the food sector

Vanillin, a highly regarded flavor compound, has earned widespread recognition for its natural and aromatic qualities, piquing substantial interest in the scientific community. This comprehensive review delves deeply into the intricate world of vanillin synthesis, encompassing a wide spectrum of methodologies, including enzymatic, microbial, and immobilized systems. This investigation provides a thorough analysis of the precursors of vanillin and also offers a comprehensive overview of its transformation through these diverse processes, making it an invaluable resource for researchers and enthusiasts alike. The elucidation of different substrates such as ferulic acid, eugenol, veratraldehyde, vanillic acid, glucovanillin, and C6-C3 phenylpropanoids adds a layer of depth and insight to the understanding of vanillin synthesis. Moreover, this comprehensive review explores the multifaceted applications of vanillin within the food industry. While commonly known as a flavoring agent, vanillin transcends this role by finding extensive use in food preservation and food packaging. The review meticulously examines the remarkable preservative properties of vanillin, providing a profound understanding of its crucial role in the culinary and food science sectors, thus making it an indispensable reference for professionals and researchers in these domains.

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Methylene Capping Facilitates Cross-Metathesis Reactions of Enals: A Short Synthesis of 7-Methoxywutaifuranal from the Xylochemical Isoeugenol

Four combinations of type-I olefins isoeugenol and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene with type-II olefins acrolein and crotonaldehyde were investigated in cross-metathesis (CM) reactions. While both type-I olefins are suitable CM partners for this transformation, we observed synthetically useful conversions only with type-II olefin crotonaldehyde. For economic reasons, isoeugenol, a cheap xylochemical available from renewable lignocellulose or from clove oil, is the preferred type-I CM partner. Nearly quantitative conversions to coniferyl aldehyde by the CM reaction of isoeugenol and crotonaldehyde can be obtained at ambient temperature without a solvent or at high substrate concentrations of 2 mol·L^-1 with the second-generation Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst. Under these conditions, the ratio of reactants can be reduced to 1:1.5 and catalyst loadings as low as 0.25 mol % are possible. The high reactivity of the isoeugenol/crotonaldehyde combination in olefin metathesis reactions was demonstrated by a short synthesis of the natural product 7-methoxywutaifuranal, which was obtained from isoeugenol in a 44% yield over five steps. We suggest that the superior performance of crotonaldehyde in the CM reactions investigated can be rationalized by "methylene capping", i.e., the steric stabilization of the propagating Ru-alkylidene species.

Expression and Characterization of Carotenoid Cleavage Oxygenases From Herbaspirillum seropedicae and Rhodobacteraceae bacterium Capable of Biotransforming Isoeugenol and 4-Vinylguaiacol to Vanillin

HsCCO and RbCCO from Herbaspirillum seropedicae and Rhodobacteraceae bacterium were selected and characterized from five putative bacterial carotenoid cleavage oxygenase gene sequences, due to merits in expression solubility and catalytic properties. Both enzymes can convert 4-vinylguaiacol and isoeugenol to vanillin. HsCCO showed maximum activity at 40°C and pH 7.0 and was stable at pH 6.5-10 and temperature around 25°C, retaining over 90 and 80% of initial activity, respectively. RbCCO showed maximum activity at 35°C and pH 9.0 and was stable at pH 6-11 and temperatures of 25-30°C, retaining over 80% of initial activity. The kinetic constants K _m of HsCCO for isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol were 1.55 and 1.65 mM and V _max were 74.09 and 27.91 nmol min^-1 mg^-1, respectively. The kinetic constants K _m of RbCCO for isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol were 2.24 and 0.85 mM and V _max were 76.48 and 19.96 nmol min^-1 mg^-1, respectively. The transformed Escherichia coli cells harboring HsCCO converted isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol at molar conversion yields of 80 and 55% and the maximum vanillin concentrations were up to 1.22 and 0.84 g L^-1, respectively. Comparably, the molar conversion yields of the transformed E. coli cells harboring RbCCO against isoeugenol 4-vinylguaiacol were 75 and 58%, and the maximum vanillin yields were up to 1.14 and 0.88 g L^-1, respectively.

Bioprocesses for 2-phenylethanol and 2-phenylethyl acetate production: current state and perspectives

2-Phenylethanol (2-PE) and 2-phenethyl acetate (2-PEA) are valuable generally recognized as safe flavoring agents widely used in industry. Perfumes, pharmaceuticals, polishes, and personal care products, are some of the final products using these compounds as additives due to their rose-like odor. Also, 2-PE is used in disinfectants, pest control, and cleaning products due to its biocide capability. Although most of these additives production are derived from chemical synthesis, the current trend of consumers to prefer natural products has contributed to the development of biotechnological approaches as an alternative way to obtain natural 2-PE and 2-PEA. The most efficient route to bioproduce these compounds is through the bioconversion of L-phenylalanine via the Ehrlich pathway, and most of the advances have been focused on the development of this process. This review compiles the most recent developments in the biotechnological production of 2-PE and 2-PEA, indicating the most studied strains producing 2-PE and 2-PEA, the current advances in the in situ product recovery in liquid systems, an overview of the strain developments, and the progress in the use of residue-based systems. Future research should address the need for more sustainable and economic systems such as those using wastes as raw materials, as well as the scale-up of the proposed technologies.

Expression and characterization of a 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase from Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 capable of biotransforming isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol to vanillin

A 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase gene from Serratia sp. ATCC 39,006 (SeNCED) was overexpressed in soluble form in E.coli. SeNCED showed the maximum activity at 30 °C and pH 8.0, and it was stable relatively at range of pH 5-10 and temperature of 20 °C to 30 °C. SeNCED effectively catalyzes the side chain double bond cleavage of isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol to vanillin. The kinetic constant Km values toward isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol were 18.92 mM and 6.31 mM and Vmax values were 50.73 IU/g and 4.77 IU/g, respectively. Moreover, the SeNCED exhibited an excellent organic solvent tolerance and the enzyme activity was substantially improved at presence of 10% of trichloromethane. The produced vanillin was achieved at an around 0.53 g/L (3.47 mM) and 0.33 g/L (2.17 mM) after 8 h reaction at 4 mM of isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol, respectively, using transformed Escherichia coli cells harboring SeNCED in the presence of trichloromethane.

Biotechnological production of vanillin using immobilized enzymes

Vanillin is an important and popular plant flavor, but the amount of this compound available from plant sources is very limited. Biotechnological methods have high potential for vanillin production as an alternative to extraction from plant sources. Here, we report a new approach using immobilized enzymes for the production of vanillin. The recently discovered oxygenase Cso2 has coenzyme-independent catalytic activity for the conversion of isoeugenol and 4-vinylguaiacol to vanillin. Immobilization of Cso2 on Sepabeads EC-EA anion-exchange carrier conferred enhanced operational stability enabling repetitive use. This immobilized Cso2 catalyst allowed 6.8mg yield of vanillin from isoeugenol through ten reaction cycles at a 1mL scale. The coenzyme-independent decarboxylase Fdc, which has catalytic activity for the conversion of ferulic acid to 4-vinylguaiacol, was also immobilized on Sepabeads EC-EA. We demonstrated that the immobilized Fdc and Cso2 enabled the cascade synthesis of vanillin from ferulic acid via 4-vinylguaiacol with repetitive use of the catalysts. This study is the first example of biotechnological production of vanillin using immobilized enzymes, a process that provides new possibilities for vanillin production.

Biotechnological applications of microbial bioconversions

Modern research has focused on the microbial transformation of a huge variety of organic compounds to obtain compounds of therapeutic and/or industrial interest. Microbial transformation is a useful tool for producing new compounds, as a consequence of the variety of reactions for natural products. This article describes the production of many important compounds by biotransformation. Emphasis is placed on reporting the metabolites that may be of special interest to the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries, as well as the practical aspects of this work in the field of microbial transformations.

High-yield production of vanillin from ferulic acid by a coenzyme-independent decarboxylase/oxygenase two-stage process

Vanillin is one of the world's most important flavor and fragrance compounds in foods and cosmetics. Recently, we demonstrated that vanillin could be produced from ferulic acid via 4-vinylguaiacol in a coenzyme-independent manner using the decarboxylase Fdc and the oxygenase Cso2. In this study, we investigated a new two-pot bioprocess for vanillin production using the whole-cell catalyst of Escherichia coli expressing Fdc in the first stage and that of E. coli expressing Cso2 in the second stage. We first optimized the second-step Cso2 reaction from 4-vinylguaiacol to vanillin, a rate-determining step for the production of vanillin. Addition of FeCl2 to the cultivation medium enhanced the activity of the resulting E. coli cells expressing Cso2, an iron protein belonging to the carotenoid cleavage oxygenase family. Furthermore, a butyl acetate-water biphasic system was effective in improving the production of vanillin. Under the optimized conditions, we attempted to produce vanillin from ferulic acid by a two-pot bioprocess on a flask scale. In the first stage, E. coli cells expressing Fdc rapidly decarboxylated ferulic acid and completely converted 75 mM of this substrate to 4-vinylguaiacol within 2 h at pH 9.0. After the first-stage reaction, cells were removed from the reaction mixture by centrifugation, and the pH of the resulting supernatant was adjusted to 10.5, the optimal pH for Cso2. This solution was subjected to the second-stage reaction. In the second stage, E. coli cells expressing Cso2 efficiently oxidized 4-vinylguaiacol to vanillin. The concentration of vanillin reached 52 mM (7.8 g L(-1)) in 24 h, which is the highest level attained to date for the biotechnological production of vanillin using recombinant cells.

Isolation and characterization of a thermotolerant ene reductase from Geobacillus sp. 30 and its heterologous expression in Rhodococcus opacus

Rhodococcus opacus B-4 cells are adhesive to and even dispersible in water-immiscible hydrocarbons owing to their highly lipophilic nature. In this study, we focused on the high operational stability of thermophilic enzymes and applied them to a biocatalytic conversion in an organic reaction medium using R. opacus B-4 as a lipophilic capsule of enzymes to deliver them into the organic medium. A novel thermo- and organic-solvent-tolerant ene reductase, which can catalyze the enantioselective reduction of ketoisophorone to (6R)-levodione, was isolated from Geobacillus sp. 30, and the gene encoding the enzyme was heterologously expressed in R. opacus B-4. Another thermophilic enzyme which catalyzes NAD(+)-dependent dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol was identified from the gene-expression library of Thermus thermophilus and the gene was coexpressed in R. opacus B-4 for cofactor regeneration. While the recombinant cells were not viable in the mixture due to high reaction temperature, 634 mM of (6R)-levodione could be produced with an enantiopurity of 89.2 % ee by directly mixing the wet cells of the recombinant R. opacus with a mixture of ketoisophorone and cyclohexanol at 50 °C. The conversion rate observed with the heat-killed recombinant cells was considerably higher than that obtained with a cell-free enzyme solution, demonstrating that the accessibility between the substrates and enzymes could be improved by employing R. opacus cells as a lipophilic enzyme capsule. These results imply that a combination of thermophilic enzymes and lipophilic cells can be a promising approach for the biocatalytic production of water-insoluble chemicals.

Transformation of ferulic acid to vanillin using a fed-batch solid-liquid two-phase partitioning bioreactor

Amycolatopsis sp. ATCC 39116 (formerly Streptomyces setonii) has shown promising results in converting ferulic acid (trans-4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid; substrate), which can be derived from natural plant wastes, to vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde). After exploring the influence of adding vanillin at different times during the growth cycle on cell growth and transformation performance of this strain and demonstrating the inhibitory effect of vanillin, a solid-liquid two-phase partitioning bioreactor (TPPB) system was used as an in situ product removal technique to enhance transformation productivity by this strain. The thermoplastic polymer Hytrel(®) G4078W was found to have superior partitioning capacity for vanillin with a partition coefficient of 12 and a low affinity for the substrate. A 3-L working volume solid-liquid fed-batch TPPB mode, using 300 g Hytrel G4078W as the sequestering phase, produced a final vanillin concentration of 19.5 g/L. The overall productivity of this reactor system was 450 mg/L. h, among the highest reported in literature. Vanillin was easily and quantitatively recovered from the polymers mostly by single stage extraction into methanol or other organic solvents used in food industry, simultaneously regenerating polymer beads for reuse. A polymer-liquid two phase bioreactor was again confirmed to easily outperform single phase systems that feature inhibitory or easily further degraded substrates/products. This enhancement strategy might reasonably be expected in the production of other flavor and fragrance compounds obtained by biotransformations.

Isolation of a gene responsible for the oxidation of trans-anethole to para-anisaldehyde by Pseudomonas putida JYR-1 and its expression in Escherichia coli

A plasmid, pTA163, in Escherichia coli contained an approximately 34-kb gene fragment from Pseudomonas putida JYR-1 that included the genes responsible for the metabolism of trans-anethole to protocatechuic acid. Three Tn5-disrupted open reading frame 10 (ORF 10) mutants of plasmid pTA163 lost their abilities to catalyze trans-anethole. Heterologously expressed ORF 10 (1,047 nucleotides [nt]) under a T7 promoter in E. coli catalyzed oxidative cleavage of a propenyl group of trans-anethole to an aldehyde group, resulting in the production of para-anisaldehyde, and this gene was designated tao (trans-anethole oxygenase). The deduced amino acid sequence of TAO had the highest identity (34%) to a hypothetical protein of Agrobacterium vitis S4 and likely contained a flavin-binding site. Preferred incorporation of an oxygen molecule from water into p-anisaldehyde using (18)O-labeling experiments indicated stereo preference of TAO for hydrolysis of the epoxide group. Interestingly, unlike the narrow substrate range of isoeugenol monooxygenase from Pseudomonas putida IE27 and Pseudomonas nitroreducens Jin1, TAO from P. putida JYR-1 catalyzed isoeugenol, O-methyl isoeugenol, and isosafrole, all of which contain the 2-propenyl functional group on the aromatic ring structure. Addition of NAD(P)H to the ultrafiltered cell extracts of E. coli (pTA163) increased the activity of TAO. Due to the relaxed substrate range of TAO, it may be utilized for the production of various fragrance compounds from plant phenylpropanoids in the future.