High-level expression of recombinant glucose dehydrogenase and its application in NADPH regeneration

Product Distribution of Steady-State and Pulsed Electrochemical Regeneration of 1,4-NADH and Integration with Enzymatic Reaction

The direct electrochemical reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) results in various products, complicating the regeneration of the crucial 1,4-NADH cofactor for enzymatic reactions. Previous research primarily focused on steady-state polarization to examine potential impacts on product selectivity. However, this study explores the influence of dynamic conditions on the selectivity of NAD+ reduction products by comparing two dynamic profiles with steady-state conditions. Our findings reveal that the main products, including 1,4-NADH, several dimers, and ADP-ribose, remained consistent across all conditions. A minor by-product, 1,6-NADH, was also identified. The product distribution varied depending on the experimental conditions (steady state vs. dynamic) and the concentration of NAD+, with higher concentrations and overpotentials promoting dimerization. The optimal yield of 1,4-NADH was achieved under steady-state conditions with low overpotential and NAD+ concentrations. While dynamic conditions enhanced the 1,4-NADH yield at shorter reaction times, they also resulted in a significant amount of unidentified products. Furthermore, this study assessed the potential of using pulsed electrochemical regeneration of 1,4-NADH with enoate reductase (XenB) for cyclohexenone reduction.

Biological synthesis of ursodeoxycholic acid

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a fundamental treatment drug for numerous hepatobiliary diseases that also has adjuvant therapeutic effects on certain cancers and neurological diseases. Chemical UDCA synthesis is environmentally unfriendly with low yields. Biological UDCA synthesis by free-enzyme catalysis or whole-cell synthesis using inexpensive and readily available chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), cholic acid (CA), or lithocholic acid (LCA) as substrates is being developed. The free enzyme-catalyzed one-pot, one-step/two-step method uses hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSDH); whole-cell synthesis, mainly uses engineered bacteria (mainly Escherichia coli) expressing the relevant HSDHs. To further develop these methods, HSDHs with specific coenzyme dependence, high enzyme activity, good stability, and high substrate loading concentration, P450 monooxygenase with C-7 hydroxylation activity and engineered strain harboring HSDHs must be exploited.

Biomanufacturing by In Vitro Biotransformation (ivBT) Using Purified Cascade Multi-enzymes

In vitro biotransformation (ivBT) refers to the use of an artificial biological reaction system that employs purified enzymes for the one-pot conversion of low-cost materials into biocommodities such as ethanol, organic acids, and amino acids. Unshackled from cell growth and metabolism, ivBT exhibits distinct advantages compared with metabolic engineering, including but not limited to high engineering flexibility, ease of operation, fast reaction rate, high product yields, and good scalability. These characteristics position ivBT as a promising next-generation biomanufacturing platform. Nevertheless, challenges persist in the enhancement of bulk enzyme preparation methods, the acquisition of enzymes with superior catalytic properties, and the development of sophisticated approaches for pathway design and system optimization. In alignment with the workflow of ivBT development, this chapter presents a systematic introduction to pathway design, enzyme mining and engineering, system construction, and system optimization. The chapter also proffers perspectives on ivBT development.

Directed evolution engineering to improve activity of glucose dehydrogenase by increasing pocket hydrophobicity

Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) is a NAD(P)+ dependent oxidoreductase, which is useful in glucose determination kits, glucose biosensors, cofactor regeneration, and biofuel cells. However, the low efficiency of the catalysis hinders the use of GDH in industrial applications. In this study, an analysis of interactions between eight GDH mutants and NADP+ is powered by AlphaFold2 and Discovery Studio 3.0. The docking results showed that more hydrogen bonds formed between mutants, such as P45A and NADP+, which indicated that these mutants had the potential for high catalytic efficiency. Subsequently, we verified all the mutants by site-directed mutagenesis. It was notable that the enzyme activity of mutant P45A was 1829 U/mg, an improvement of 28-fold compared to wild-type GDH. We predicted the hydrophobicity of the protein-ligand complexes, which was confirmed by an 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulphonic acid fluorescent probe. The following order of increasing hydrophobicity index was deduced: GDH < N46E < F155Y < P45A, which suggested that the enzyme activity of GDH is positively related to its pocket hydrophobicity. Furthermore, P45A still showed better catalytic ability in organic solvents, reaching 692 U/mg in 10% isopropanol, which was 19-fold that of the wild-type GDH. However, its substrate affinity was affected by organic solvents. This study provides a good theoretical foundation for further improving the catalytic efficiency of GDH.

Biocatalytic Cascade of Sebacic Acid Production with In Situ Co-Factor Regeneration Enabled by Engineering of an Alcohol Dehydrogenase

Sebacic acid (1,10-decanedioic acid) is an important chemical intermediate. Traditional chemical oxidation methods for sebacic acid production do not conform with “green” manufacturing. With the rapid development of enzymatic technologies, a biocatalytic cascade method based on the Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenase was developed. The most attractive point of the method is the oleic acid that can be utilized as raw material, which is abundant in nature. However, this bio-catalysis process needs co-factor electron carriers, and the high cost of the co-factor limits its progress. In this piece of work, a co-factor in situ regeneration system between ADH from Micrococcus luteus WIUJH20 (MlADH) and BVMO is proposed. Since the co-factors of both enzymes are different, switching the co-factor preference of native MlADH from NAD+ to NADP+ is necessary. Switching research was carried out based on in silico simulation, and the sites of Tyr36, Asp 37, Ala38, and Val39 were selected for mutation investigation. The experimental results demonstrated that mutants of MlADH_D37G and MlADH_D37G/A38T/V39K would utilize NADP+ efficiently, and the mutant of MlADH_D37G/A38T/V39K demonstrated the highest sebacic acid yield with the combination of BVMO. The results indicated that the in situ co-factor generation system is successfully developed, which would improve the efficiency of the biocatalytic cascade for sebacic acid production and is helpful for simplifying product isolation, thus, reducing the cost of the enzymatic transformations process.

Novel flavonoid C-8 hydroxylase from Rhodotorula glutinis: identification, characterization and substrate scope

Background

The regioselective hydroxylation of phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids, is still a bottleneck of classical organic chemistry that could be solved using enzymes with high activity and specificity. Yeast Rhodotorula glutinis KCh735 in known to catalyze the C-8 hydroxylation of flavones and flavanones. The enzyme F8H (flavonoid C8-hydroxylase) is involved in the reaction, but the specific gene has not yet been identified. In this work, we present identification, heterologous expression and characterization of the first F8H ortho-hydroxylase from yeast.

Results

Differential transcriptome analysis and homology to bacterial monooxygenases, including also a FAD-dependent motif and a GD motif characteristic for flavin-dependent monooxygenases, provided a set of coding sequences among which RgF8H was identified. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that RgF8H is a member of the flavin monooxygenase group active on flavonoid substrates. Analysis of recombinant protein showed that the enzyme catalyzes the C8-hydroxylation of naringenin, hesperetin, eriodyctiol, pinocembrin, apigenin, luteolin, chrysin, diosmetin and 7,4ʹ-dihydroxyflavone. The presence of the C7-OH group is necessary for enzymatic activity indicating ortho-hydroxylation mechanism. The enzyme requires the NADPH coenzyme for regeneration prosthetic group, displays very low hydroxyperoxyflavin decupling rate, and addition of FAD significantly increases its activity.

Conclusions

This study presents identification of the first yeast hydroxylase responsible for regioselective C8-hydroxylation of flavonoids (F8H). The enzyme was biochemically characterized and applied in in vitro cascade with Bacillus megaterium glucose dehydrogenase reactions. High in vivo activity in Escherichia coli enable further synthetic biology application towards production of rare highly antioxidant compounds.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-022-01899-x.

Improving biocatalytic properties of an azoreductase via the N-terminal fusion of formate dehydrogenase

Azoreductases require NAD(P)H to reduce azo dyes but the costly price of NAD(P)H limits its application. Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) allows NAD(P)+ recycling and therefore, the fusion of these two biocatalysts seems promising. This study investigated the changes to the fusion protein involving azoreductase (AzoRo) of Rhodococcus opacus 1CP and FDH (FDHC23S and FDHC23SD195QY196H) of Candida boidinii in different positions with His-tag as the linker. The position affected enzyme activities as AzoRo activity decreased by 20-fold when it is in the N-terminus of the fusion protein. FDHC23S+AzoRo was the most active construct and was further characterized. Enzymatic activities of FDHC23S+AzoRo decreased compared to parental enzymes but showed improved substrate scope - accepting bulkier dyes. Moreover, pH has an influence on the stability and activity of the fusion protein because at pH 6 (pH that is suboptimal for FDH), the dye reduction decreased to more than 50% and this could be attributed to the impaired NADH supply for the AzoRo part.

High-yield whole cell biosynthesis of Nylon 12 monomer with self-sufficient supply of multiple cofactors

Biosynthesis of Nylon 12 monomer using dodecanoic acid (DDA) or its esters as the renewable feedstock typically involves ω-hydroxylation, oxidation and ω-amination. The dependence of hydroxylation and oxidation-catalyzing enzymes on redox cofactors, and the requirement of L-alanine as the co-substrate and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) as the coenzyme for transamination, raise the issue of redox imbalance and cofactor shortage, challenging the development of efficient biocatalysts. Simultaneous regeneration of the redox equivalents, PLP and L-alanine required in the artificial pathway was enabled by its interfacing with the native metabolism of the host using glucose dehydrogenase (GDH), L-alanine dehydrogenase (AlaDH) and an exogenous ribose 5-phosphate (R5P)-dependent PLP synthesis pathway as bridges. Further engineering of the host by blocking β-oxidation and enhancing substrate uptake improved the ω-aminododecanoic acid (ω-AmDDA) yield to 96.5%. This study offers a strategy to resolve the cofactor imbalance issue commonly encountered in whole-cell biocatalysis and meanwhile lays a solid foundation for Nylon 12 bioproduction.

Bioretrosynthesis of Functionalized N-Heterocycles from Glucose via One-Pot Tandem Collaborations of Designed Microbes

The design of multistrain systems has markedly expanded the prospects of using long biosynthetic pathways to produce natural compounds. However, the cooperative use of artificially engineered microbes to synthesize xenobiotic chemicals from renewable carbohydrates is still in its infancy. Here, a microbial system is developed for the production of high-added-value N-heterocycles directly from glucose. Based on a retrosynthetic analysis, eleven genes are selected, systematically modulated, and overexpressed in three Escherichia coli strains to construct an artificial pathway to produce 5-methyl-2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid, a key intermediate in the production of the important pharmaceuticals Glipizide and Acipimox. Via one-pot tandem collaborations, the designed microbes remarkably realize high-level production of 5-methyl-2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid (6.2 ± 0.1 g L-1) and its precursor 2,5-dimethylpyrazine (7.9 ± 0.7 g L-1). This study is the first application of cooperative microbes for the total biosynthesis of functionalized N-heterocycles and provides new insight into integrating bioretrosynthetic principles with synthetic biology to perform complex syntheses.

Round, round we go - strategies for enzymatic cofactor regeneration

Covering: up to the beginning of 2020Enzymes depending on cofactors are essential in many biosynthetic pathways of natural products. They are often involved in key steps: catalytic conversions that are difficult to achieve purely with synthetic organic chemistry. Hence, cofactor-dependent enzymes have great potential for biocatalysis, on the condition that a corresponding cofactor regeneration system is available. For some cofactors, these regeneration systems require multiple steps; such complex enzyme cascades/multi-enzyme systems are (still) challenging for in vitro biocatalysis. Further, artificial cofactor analogues have been synthesised that are more stable, show an altered reaction range, or act as inhibitors. The development of bio-orthogonal systems that can be used for the production of modified natural products in vivo is an ongoing challenge. In light of the recent progress in this field, this review aims to provide an overview of general strategies involving enzyme cofactors, cofactor analogues, and regeneration systems; highlighting the current possibilities for application of enzymes using some of the most common cofactors.

NAD(P)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase: Applications for biosensors, bioelectrodes, and biofuel cells

This review discusses the physical and chemical properties of nicotinamide redox cofactor dependent glucose dehydrogenase (NAD(P) dependent GDH) and its extensive application in biosensors and bio-fuel cells. GDHs from different organisms show diverse biochemical properties (e.g., activity and stability) and preferences towards cofactors, such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP⁺). The (NAD(P)⁺) play important roles in biological electron transfer, however, there are some difficulties related to their application in devices that originate from their chemical properties and labile binding to the GDH enzyme. This review discusses the electrode modifications aimed at immobilising NAD⁺ or NADP⁺ cofactors and GDH at electrodes. Binding of the enzyme was achieved by appropriate protein engineering techniques, including polymerisation, hydrophobisation or hydrophilisation processes. Various enzyme-modified electrodes applied in biosensors, enzymatic fuel cells, and biobatteries are compared. Importantly, GDH can operate alone or as part of an enzymatic cascade, which often improves the functional parameters of the biofuel cell or simply allows use of cheaper fuels. Overall, this review explores how NAD(P)-dependent GDH has recently demonstrated high potential for use in various systems to generate electricity from biological sources for applications in implantable biomedical devices, wireless sensors, and portable electronic devices.

Efficient synthesis of d-phenyllactic acid by a whole-cell biocatalyst co-expressing glucose dehydrogenase and a novel d-lactate dehydrogenase from Lactobacillus rossiae

d-Phenyllactic acid is a versatile natural organic acid, which is used as an antiseptic agent, monomer of the biodegradable material poly-phenyllactic acid and in the synthesis chiral intermediate of pharmaceuticals. In this report, the novel NADH-dependent d-lactate dehydrogenase LrLDH was identified by screening a shotgun genome of Lactobacillus rossiae. To improve cofactor regeneration, the Exiguobacterium sibiricum glucose dehydrogenase EsGDH was overexpressed together with LrLDH in E. coli BL21(DE3)-pCDFDuet-1-gdh-ldh. The total enzyme activity in the fermentation broth of E. coli BL 21(DE3)-pCDFDuet-1-gdh-ldh peaked at 2359.0 U l-1 when induced by 10 g l-1 lactose at 28 °C and 150 rpm for 14 h. The biocatalytic reduction of sodium phenylpyruvate to d-phenyllactic acid was successfully carried out using whole cells of the engineered E. coli. Under the optimized biocatalysis conditions, 50 g l-1 sodium phenylpyruvate was completely converted to d-phenyllactic acid with a space-time yield and enantiomeric excess of 262.8 g l-1 day-1 and > 99.5%, respectively. To our best knowledge, it is the highest productivity reported to date, with great potential for the mass production of d-phenyllactic acid.

Cloning, Expression and Characterization of a Highly Active Alcohol Dehydrogenase for Production of Ethyl (S)-4-Chloro-3-Hydroxybutyrate

A novel alcohol dehydrogenase from Bartonella apis (BaADH) was heterologous expressed in Escherichia coli. Its biochemical properties were investigated and used to catalyze the synthesis of ethyl (S)-4-chloro-3-hydroxybutanoate ((S)-CHBE), which is a chiral intermediate of the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin. The purified recombinant BaADH displayed 182.4 U/mg of the specific activity using ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate as substrate under the conditions of 50 °C in pH 7.0 Tris-HCl buffer. It was stable in storage buffers of pH 7 to 9 and retains up to 96.7% of the initial activity after 24 h. The K _m and V _max values of BaADH were 0.11 mM and 190.4 μmol min^-1 mg^-1, respectively. Synthesis of (S)-CHBE catalyzed by BaADH was performed with a cofactor regeneration system using a glucose dehydrogenase, and a conversion of 94.9% can be achieved after 1 h reaction. Homology modeling and substrate docking revealed that a typical catalytic triad is in contact with local water molecules to form a catalytic system. The results indicated this ADH could contribute to the further enzymatic synthesis of (S)-CHBE.

A Recombinant 12-His Tagged Pyrococcus furiosus Soluble [NiFe]-Hydrogenase I Overexpressed in Thermococcus kodakarensis KOD1 Facilitates Hydrogen-Powered in vitro NADH Regeneration

Soluble hydrogenase I (SHI) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus is a heterotetrameric [NiFe] hydrogenase that catalyzes the reversible reduction of protons by NADPH into hydrogen gas (H₂ ). Here, the authors expressed the four αβγδ subunits of SHI encoded by one gene cluster in another hyperthermophilic archaeon, Thermococcus kodakarensis KOD1, which uses its hydrogenase maturation apparatus without the coexpression of native P. furiosus hydrogenase endopeptidases (maturation proteases). The SHI overexpression of T. kodakarensis resulted in more than 1200-fold enhancement in the hydrogenase activity of the cell lysate compared to that of the host strain with an empty vector. An active, purified 12-His tagged recombinant SHI (rSHI) is obtained by one-step affinity adsorption on nickel-charged resin. Size-exclusion chromatography show that purified rSHI is heterotetrameric and has a molecular mass of 150 kDa. The purified rSHI has a half-life of 70 h at 80 °C. This rSHI is used to design a novel in vitro synthetic enzymatic biosystem to convert pyruvate and H₂ gas into lactate in a theoretical yield, whereas rSHI is used for NADPH regeneration; an FMN-containing diaphorase (DI) is used to match NADP-preferred SHI and NAD-preferred lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). This study provides a cost-efficient method to obtain hyperthermostable hydrogenases, which can be used in in vitro synthetic enzymatic biosystems for cofactor regeneration and hydrogen production.

An in vitro synthetic biology platform for emerging industrial biomanufacturing: Bottom-up pathway design

Although most in vitro (cell-free) synthetic biology projects are usually used for the purposes of fundamental research or the formation of high-value products, in vitro synthetic biology platform, which can implement complicated biochemical reactions by the in vitro assembly of numerous enzymes and coenzymes, has been proposed for low-cost biomanufacturing of bioenergy, food, biochemicals, and nutraceuticals. In addition to the most important advantage-high product yield, in vitro synthetic biology platform features several other biomanufacturing advantages, such as fast reaction rate, easy product separation, open process control, broad reaction condition, tolerance to toxic substrates or products, and so on. In this article, we present the basic bottom-up design principles of in vitro synthetic pathway from basic building blocks-BioBricks (thermoenzymes and/or immobilized enzymes) to building modules (e.g., enzyme complexes or multiple enzymes as a module) with specific functions. With development in thermostable building blocks-BioBricks and modules, the in vitro synthetic biology platform would open a new biomanufacturing age for the cost-competitive production of biocommodities.

Engineering redox homeostasis to develop efficient alcohol-producing microbial cell factories

The biosynthetic pathways of most alcohols are linked to intracellular redox homeostasis, which is crucial for life. This crucial balance is primarily controlled by the generation of reducing equivalents, as well as the (reduction)-oxidation metabolic cycle and the thiol redox homeostasis system. As a main oxidation pathway of reducing equivalents, the biosynthesis of most alcohols includes redox reactions, which are dependent on cofactors such as NADH or NADPH. Thus, when engineering alcohol-producing strains, the availability of cofactors and redox homeostasis must be considered. In this review, recent advances on the engineering of cellular redox homeostasis systems to accelerate alcohol biosynthesis are summarized. Recent approaches include improving cofactor availability, manipulating the affinity of redox enzymes to specific cofactors, as well as globally controlling redox reactions, indicating the power of these approaches, and opening a path towards improving the production of a number of different industrially-relevant alcohols in the near future.

Kinetic properties and stability of glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SB5 and its potential for cofactor regeneration

Glucose dehydrogenases (GluDH) from Bacillus species offer several advantages over other NAD(P)H regeneration systems including high stability, inexpensive substrate, thermodynamically favorable reaction and flexibility to regenerate both NADH and NADPH. In this research, characteristics of GluDH from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SB5 (GluDH-BA) was reported for the first time. Despite a highly similar amino acid sequence when comparing with GluDH from Bacillus subtilis (GluDH-BS), GluDH-BA exhibited significantly higher specific activity (4.7-fold) and stability when pH was higher than 6. While an optimum activity of GluDH-BA was observed at a temperature of 50 °C, the enzyme was stable only up to 42 °C. GluDH-BA exhibited an extreme tolerance towards n-hexane and its respective alcohols. The productivity of GluDH obtained in this study (8.42 mg-GluDH/g-wet cells; 1035 U/g-wet cells) was among the highest productivity reported for recombinant E. coli. With its low K_M-value towards glucose (5.5 mM) and NADP⁺ (0.05 mM), GluDH-BA was highly suitable for in vivo applications. In this work, a recombinant solvent-tolerant B. subtilis BA overexpressing GluDH-BA was developed and evaluated by coupling with B. subtilis overexpressing an enzyme P450 BM3 F87V for a whole-cell hydroxylation of n-hexane. Significantly higher products obtained clearly proved that B. subtilis BA was an effective cofactor regenerator, a valuable asset for bioproduction of value-added chemicals.

NADPH-generating systems in bacteria and archaea

Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is an essential electron donor in all organisms. It provides the reducing power that drives numerous anabolic reactions, including those responsible for the biosynthesis of all major cell components and many products in biotechnology. The efficient synthesis of many of these products, however, is limited by the rate of NADPH regeneration. Hence, a thorough understanding of the reactions involved in the generation of NADPH is required to increase its turnover through rational strain improvement. Traditionally, the main engineering targets for increasing NADPH availability have included the dehydrogenase reactions of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and the isocitrate dehydrogenase step of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. However, the importance of alternative NADPH-generating reactions has recently become evident. In the current review, the major canonical and non-canonical reactions involved in the production and regeneration of NADPH in prokaryotes are described, and their key enzymes are discussed. In addition, an overview of how different enzymes have been applied to increase NADPH availability and thereby enhance productivity is provided.

Reconstitution of the In Vitro Activity of the Cyclosporine-Specific P450 Hydroxylase from Sebekia benihana and Development of a Heterologous Whole-Cell Biotransformation System

The cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP-sb21 from Sebekia benihana is capable of catalyzing the site-specific hydroxylation of the immunosuppressant cyclosporine (CsA), leading to the single product γ-hydroxy-N-methyl-l-Leu4-CsA (CsA-4-OH). Unlike authentic CsA, this hydroxylated CsA shows significantly reduced immunosuppressive activity while it retains a side effect of CsA, the hair growth stimulation effect. Although CYP-sb21 was previously identified to be responsible for CsA-specific hydroxylation in vivo, the in vitro activity of CYP-sb21 has yet to be established for a deeper understanding of this P450 enzyme and further reaction optimization. In this study, we reconstituted the in vitro activity of CYP-sb21 by using surrogate redox partner proteins of bacterial and cyanobacterial origins. The highest CsA site-specific hydroxylation activity by CYP-sb21 was observed when it was partnered with the cyanobacterial redox system composed of seFdx and seFdR from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. The best bioconversion yields were obtained in the presence of 10% methanol as a cosolvent and an NADPH regeneration system. A heterologous whole-cell biocatalyst using Escherichia coli was also constructed, and the permeability problem was solved by using N-cetyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). This work provides a useful example for reconstituting a hybrid P450 system and developing it into a promising biocatalyst for industrial application.

Manipulating multi-system of NADPH regulation in Escherichia coli for enhanced S-adenosylmethionine production

NADPH regulation strategies were applied to increase the availability of NADPH in theS-adenosylmethionine biosynthesis, and they are also potentially applicable to various processes for enhancing the NADPH-dependent chemicals production.

A genomic search approach to identify carbonyl reductases in Gluconobacter oxydans for enantioselective reduction of ketones

The versatile carbonyl reductases from Gluconobacter oxydans in the enantioselective reduction of ketones to the corresponding alcohols were exploited by genome search approach. All purified enzymes showed activities toward the tested ketoesters with different activities. In the reduction of 4-phenyl-2-butanone with in situ NAD(P)H regeneration system, (S)-alcohol was obtained with an e.e. of up to 100% catalyzed by Gox0644. Under the same experimental condition, all enzymes catalyzed ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate to give chiral products with an excellent e.e. of up to 99%, except Gox0644. Gox2036 had a strict requirement for NADH as the cofactor and showed excellent enantiospecificity in the synthesis of ethyl (R)-4-chloro-3-hydroxybutanoate. For the reduction of ethyl 2-oxo-4-phenylbutyrate, excellent e.e. (>99%) and high conversion (93.1%) were obtained by Gox0525, whereas the other enzymes showed relatively lower e.e. and conversions. Among them, Gox2036 and Gox0525 showed potentials in the synthesis of chiral alcohols as useful biocatalysts.

Whole cell biotransformation for reductive amination reactions

Whole cell biotransformation systems with enzyme cascading increasingly find application in biocatalysis to complement or replace established chemical synthetic routes for production of, e.g., fine chemicals. Recently, we established an Escherichia coli whole cell biotransformation system for reductive amination by coupling a transaminase and an amino acid dehydrogenase with glucose catabolism for cofactor recycling. Transformation of 2-keto-3-methylvalerate to l-isoleucine by E. coli cells was improved by genetic engineering of glucose metabolism for improved cofactor regeneration. Here, we compare this system with different strategies for cofactor regeneration such as cascading with alcohol dehydrogenases, with alternative production hosts such as Pseudomonas species or Corynebacterium glutamicum, and with improving whole cell biotransformation systems by metabolic engineering of NADPH regeneration.

Simultaneously improving stability and specificity of cell surface displayed glucose dehydrogenase mutants to construct whole-cell biocatalyst for glucose biosensor application

The improved stability and substrate specificity of cell surface displayed glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) mutants by replacing four amino acids from Bacillus subtilis by using site-directed mutagenesis was systematically investigated. A series of mutated GDHs including E170R/Q252L, V149K/E170R/Q252L, E170R/Q252L/G259A and V149K/E170R/Q252L/G259A, were fused to the ice nucleation protein for displaying on cell surface of Eschericia coli. Q252L/E170R/V149K, Q252L/E170R/G259A and Q252L/E170R/V149K/G259A variants were found stable at a wide pH range and shown excellent thermostability. Especially, the Q252L/E170R/V149K/G259A mutant showed half-life of ~3.8days at 70 °C. Q252L/E170R/V149K/G259A variant exhibited the narrowest substrate specificity for d-glucose. The whole cell displayed GDH mutant could be cultured in a large scale with excellent enzyme activity and productivity. In addition, a sensitive and stable electrochemical glucose biosensor can be prepared using the GDH-mutant bacteria modified electrode. Thus, the whole cell biocatalysts are promising candidates for exploitation in a wide range of industrial applications.

Engineering of NADPH regenerators in Escherichia coli for enhanced biotransformation

Efficient regeneration of NADPH is one of the limiting factors that constrain the productivity of biotransformation processes. In order to increase the availability of NADPH for enhanced biotransformation by engineered Escherichia coli, modulation of the pentose phosphate pathway and amplification of the transhydrogenases system have been conventionally attempted as primary solutions. Recently, other approaches for stimulating NADPH regeneration during glycolysis, such as replacement of native glyceradehdye-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) with NADP-dependent GAPDH from Clostridium acetobutylicum and introduction of NADH kinase catalyzing direct phosphorylation of NADH to NADPH from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were attempted and resulted in remarkable impacts on NADPH-dependent bioprocesses. This review summarizes several metabolic engineering approaches used for improving the NADPH regenerating capacity in engineered E. coli for whole-cell-based bioprocesses and discusses the key features and progress of those attempts.

Recombinant bromelain production in Escherichia coli: process optimization in shake flask culture by response surface methodology

Bromelain, a cysteine protease with various therapeutic and industrial applications, was expressed in Escherichia coli, BL21-AI clone, under different cultivation conditions (post-induction temperature, L-arabinose concentration and post-induction period). The optimized conditions by response surface methodology using face centered central composite design were 0.2% (w/v) L-arabinose, 8 hr and 25°C. The analysis of variance coupled with larger value of R² (0.989) showed that the quadratic model used for the prediction was highly significant (p < 0.05). Under the optimized conditions, the model produced bromelain activity of 9.2 U/mg while validation experiments gave bromelain activity of 9.6 ± 0.02 U/mg at 0.15% (w/v) L-arabinose, 8 hr and 27°C. This study had innovatively developed cultivation conditions for better production of recombinant bromelain in shake flask culture.

Cell-free biosystems for biomanufacturing

Although cell-free biosystems have been used as a tool for investigating fundamental aspects of biological systems for more than 100 years, they are becoming an emerging biomanufacturing platform in the production of low-value biocommodities (e.g., H(2), ethanol, and isobutanol), fine chemicals, and high-value protein and carbohydrate drugs and their precursors. Here we would like to define the cell-free biosystems containing more than three catalytic components in a single reaction vessel, which although different from one-, two-, or three-enzyme biocatalysis can be regarded as a straightforward extension of multienzymatic biocatalysis. In this chapter, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of cell-free biosystems versus living organisms, briefly review the history of cell-free biosystems, highlight a few examples, analyze any remaining obstacles to the scale-up of cell-free biosystems, and suggest potential solutions. Cell-free biosystems could become a disruptive technology to microbial fermentation, especially in the production of high-impact low-value biocommodities mainly due to the very high product yields and potentially low production costs.

Biohydrogenation from biomass sugar mediated by in vitro synthetic enzymatic pathways

Different from NAD(P)H regeneration approaches mediated by a single enzyme or a whole-cell microorganism, we demonstrate high-yield generation of NAD(P)H from a renewable biomass sugar--cellobiose through in vitro synthetic enzymatic pathways consisting of 12 purified enzymes and coenzymes. When the NAD(P)H generation system was coupled with its consumption reaction mediated by xylose reductase, the NADPH yield was as high as 11.4 mol NADPH per cellobiose (i.e., 95% of theoretical yield--12 NADPH per glucose unit) in a batch reaction. Consolidation of endothermic reactions and exothermic reactions in one pot results in a very high energy-retaining efficiency of 99.6% from xylose and cellobiose to xylitol. The combination of this high-yield and projected low-cost biohydrogenation and aqueous phase reforming may be important for the production of sulfur-free liquid jet fuel in the future.

Cloning and expression in E. coli of an organic solvent-tolerant and alkali-resistant glucose 1-dehydrogenase from Lysinibacillus sphaericus G10

The gene gdh encoding an organic solvent-tolerant and alkaline-resistant NAD(P)-dependent glucose 1-dehydrogenase (LsGDH) was cloned from Lysinibacillus sphaericus G10 and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant LsGDH exhibited maximum activity at pH 9.5 and 50 °C. LsGDH displayed high stability at a wide pH ranging from 6.5 to 10.0 and was stable after incubation at 30 °C for 1 week in 25 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.5) in the absence or presence of NaCl. The activity of LsGDH was enhanced by Li+, Na+, K+, NH4+, Mg2+, and EDTA at pH 8.0. LsGDH exhibited high tolerance to 60% DMSO, 30% acetone, 30% methanol, 30% ethanol, 10% n-propanol, 30% isopropanol, 60% n-hexanol and 30% n-hexane. The relationship between stability and chain length of the alcohols fit a Gaussian distribution model (R2≥0.94), and demonstrated lowest enzyme stability in C4-alcohol. The results suggested that LsGDH was potentially useful for coenzyme regeneration in organic solvents or under alkaline conditions.

Synthesis of optically pure S-sulfoxide by Escherichia coli transformant cells coexpressing the P450 monooxygenase and glucose dehydrogenase genes

A cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (P450SMO) from Rhodococcus sp. can catalyze asymmetric oxygenation of sulfides to S-sulfoxides. However, P450SMO-catalyzed biotransformations require a constant supply of NAD(P)H, the expense of which constitutes a great hindrance for this enzyme application. In this study, we investigated the asymmetric oxygenation of sulfide to S-sulfoxide using E. coli cells, which co-express both the P450SMO gene from Rhodococcus sp. and the glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) gene from Bacillus subtilis, as a catalyst. The results showed that the catalytic performance of co-expression systems was markedly improved compared to the system lacking GDH. When using recombinant E. coli BL21 (pET28a-P450-GDH) whole cell as a biocatalyst, NADPH was efficiently regenerated when glucose was supplemented in the reaction system. A total conversion of 100% was achieved within 12 h with 2 mM p-chlorothioanisole substrate, affording 317.3 mg/L S-sulfoxide obtained. When the initial sulfide concentration was increased to 5 mM, the substrate conversion was also increased nearly fivefold: S-sulfoxide amounted to 2.5 mM (396.6 mg/L) and the ee value of sulfoxide product exceeded 98%. In this system, the effects of glucose concentration and substrate concentration were further investigated for efficient biotransformation. This system is highly advantageous for the synthesis of optically pure S-sulfoxide.

Overexpression and simple purification of the Thermotoga maritima 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in Escherichia coli and its application for NADPH regeneration

Background

Thermostable enzymes from thermophilic microorganisms are playing more and more important roles in molecular biology R&D and industrial applications. However, over-production of recombinant soluble proteins from thermophilic microorganisms in mesophilic hosts (e.g. E. coli) remains challenging sometimes.

Results

An open reading frame TM0438 from a hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima putatively encoding 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGDH) was cloned and expressed in E. coli. The purified protein was confirmed to have 6PGDH activity with a molecular mass of 53 kDa. The k_cat of this enzyme was 325 s^-1 and the K_m values for 6-phosphogluconate, NADP⁺, and NAD⁺ were 11, 10 and 380 μM, respectively, at 80°C. This enzyme had half-life times of 48 and 140 h at 90 and 80°C, respectively. Through numerous approaches including expression vectors, hosts, cultivation conditions, inducers, and codon-optimization of the 6pgdh gene, the soluble 6PGDH expression levels were enhanced to ~250 mg per liter of culture by more than 500-fold. The recombinant 6PGDH accounted for >30% of total E. coli cellular proteins when lactose was used as a low-cost inducer. In addition, this enzyme coupled with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase for the first time was demonstrated to generate two moles of NADPH per mole of glucose-6-phosphate.

Conclusion

We have achieved a more than 500-fold improvement in the expression of soluble T. maritima 6PGDH in E. coli, characterized its basic biochemical properties, and demonstrated its applicability for NADPH regeneration by a new enzyme cocktail. The methodology for over-expression and simple purification of this thermostable protein would be useful for the production of other thermostable proteins in E. coli.

Improvement of P450(BM-3) whole-cell biocatalysis by integrating heterologous cofactor regeneration combining glucose facilitator and dehydrogenase in E. coli

Escherichia coli BL21, expressing a quintuple mutant of P450(BM-3), oxyfunctionalizes alpha-pinene in an NADPH-dependent reaction to alpha-pinene oxide, verbenol, and myrtenol. We optimized the whole-cell biocatalyst by integrating a recombinant intracellular NADPH regeneration system through co-expression of a glucose facilitator from Zymomonas mobilis for uptake of unphosphorylated glucose and a NADP(+)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus megaterium that oxidizes glucose to gluconolactone. The engineered strain showed a nine times higher initial alpha-pinene oxide formation rate corresponding to a sixfold higher yield of 20 mg g(-1) cell dry weight after 1.5 h. The initial total product formation rate was 1,000 micromol h(-1) micromol(-1) P450 leading to a total of 32 mg oxidized products per gram cell of dry weight after 1.5 h. The physiological functioning of the heterologous cofactor regeneration system was illustrated by a sevenfold increased alpha-pinene oxide yield in the presence of glucose compared to glucose-free conditions.