Bioprocess design guided by in situ substrate supply and product removal: process intensification for synthesis of (S)-1-(2-chlorophenyl)ethanol

Biosynthesis of Pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde via Enzymatic CO2 Fixation

The use of CO2 as a chemical building block is of considerable interest. To achieve carbon fixation at ambient conditions, (de)carboxylase enzymes offer an attractive route but frequently require elevated [CO2] levels to yield the acid product. However, it has recently been shown that the coupling of a UbiD-type decarboxylase with carboxylic acid reductase yields the corresponding aldehyde product at near ambient [CO2]. Here, we show this approach can be expanded to different UbiD and CAR enzymes to yield alternative products, in this case, the production of pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde from pyrrole, using Pseudomonas aeruginosa HudA/PA0254 in combination with Segniliparus rotundus CAR. This confirms the varied substrate range of the respective UbiD and CAR enzymes can be harnessed in distinct combinations to support production of a wide range of aldehydes via enzymatic CO2 fixation.

Cascading Old Yellow Enzyme, Alcohol Dehydrogenase and Glucose Dehydrogenase for Selective Reduction of (E/Z)-Citral to (S)-Citronellol

Citronellol is a kind of unsaturated alcohol with rose-like smell and its (S)-enantiomer serves as an important intermediate for organic synthesis of (-)-cis-rose oxide. Chemical methods are commonly used for the synthesis of citronellol and its (S)-enantiomer, which suffers from severe reaction conditions and poor selectivity. Here, the first one-pot double reduction of (E/Z)-citral to (S)-citronellol was achieved in a multi-enzymatic cascade system: N-ethylmaleimide reductase from Providencia stuartii (NemR-PS) was selected to catalyze the selective reduction of (E/Z)-citral to (S)-citronellal, alcohol dehydrogenase from Yokenella sp. WZY002 (YsADH) performed the further reduction of (S)-citronellal to (S)-citronellol, meanwhile a variant of glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus megaterium (BmGDHM6), together with glucose, drove efficient NADPH regeneration. The Escherichia coli strain co-expressing NemR-PS, YsADH, and BmGDHM6 was successfully constructed and used as the whole-cell catalyst. Various factors were investigated for achieving high conversion and reducing the accumulation of the intermediate (S)-citronellal and by-products. 0.4 mM NADP+ was essential for maintaining high catalytic activity, while the feeding of the cells expressing BmGDHM6 effectively eliminated the intermediate and by-products and shortened the reaction time. Under optimized conditions, the bio-transformation of 400 mM citral caused nearly complete conversion (>99.5%) to enantio-pure (S)-citronellol within 36 h, demonstrating promise for industrial application.

Pushing the limits: Cyclodextrin-based intensification of bioreductions

The asymmetric reduction of ketones is a frequently used synthesis route towards chiral alcohols. Amongst available chemo- and biocatalysts the latter stand out in terms of product enantiopurity. Their application is, however, restricted by low reaction output, often rooted in limited enzyme stability under operational conditions. Here, addition of 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin to bioreductions of o-chloroacetophenone enabled product concentrations of up to 29 % w/v at full conversion and 99.97 % e.e. The catalyst was an E. coli strain co-expressing NADH-dependent Candida tenuis xylose reductase and a yeast formate dehydrogenase for coenzyme recycling. Analysis of the lyophilized biocatalyst showed that E. coli cells were leaky with catalytic activity found as free-floating enzymes and associated with the biomass. The biocatalyst was stabilized and activated in the reaction mixture by 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Substitution of the wild-type xylose reductase by a D51A mutant further improved bioreductions. In previous optimization strategies, hexane was added as second phase to protect the labile catalyst from adverse effects of hydrophobic substrate and product. The addition of 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (11 % w/v) instead of hexane (20 % v/v) increased the yield on biocatalyst 6.3-fold. A literature survey suggests that bioreduction enhancement by addition of cyclodextrins is not restricted to specific enzyme classes, catalyst forms or substrates.

Reactor Selection for Effective Continuous Biocatalytic Production of Pharmaceuticals

Enzyme catalyzed reactions are rapidly becoming an invaluable tool for the synthesis of many active pharmaceutical ingredients. These reactions are commonly performed in batch, but continuous biocatalysis is gaining interest in industry because it would allow seamless integration of chemical and enzymatic reaction steps. However, because this is an emerging field, little attention has been paid towards the suitability of different reactor types for continuous biocatalytic reactions. Two types of continuous flow reactor are possible: continuous stirred tank and continuous plug-flow. These reactor types differ in a number of ways, but in this contribution, we focus on residence time distribution and how enzyme kinetics are affected by the unique mass balance of each reactor. For the first time, we present a tool to facilitate reactor selection for continuous biocatalytic production of pharmaceuticals. From this analysis, it was found that plug-flow reactors should generally be the system of choice. However, there are particular cases where they may need to be coupled with a continuous stirred tank reactor or replaced entirely by a series of continuous stirred tank reactors, which can approximate plug-flow behavior. This systematic approach should accelerate the implementation of biocatalysis for continuous pharmaceutical production.

Measurement of oxygen transfer from air into organic solvents

BACKGROUND

The use of non-aqueous organic media is becoming increasingly important in many biotechnological applications in order to achieve process intensification. Such media can be used, for example, to directly extract poorly water-soluble toxic products from fermentations. Likewise many biological reactions require the supply of oxygen, most normally from air. However, reliable online measurements of oxygen concentration in organic solvents (and hence oxygen transfer rates from air to the solvent) has to date proven impossible due to limitations in the current analytical methods.

RESULTS

For the first time, online oxygen measurements in non-aqueous media using a novel optical sensor are demonstrated. The sensor was used to measure oxygen concentration in various organic solvents including toluene, THF, isooctane, DMF, heptane and hexane (which have all been shown suitable for several biological applications). Subsequently, the oxygen transfer rates from air into these organic solvents were measured.

CONCLUSION

The measurement of oxygen transfer rates from air into organic solvents using the dynamic method was established using the solvent resistant optical sensor. The feasibility of online oxygen measurements in organic solvents has also been demonstrated, paving the way for new opportunities in process control. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology published by JohnWiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Rules for biocatalyst and reaction engineering to implement effective, NAD(P)H-dependent, whole cell bioreductions

Access to chiral alcohols of high optical purity is today frequently provided by the enzymatic reduction of precursor ketones. However, bioreductions are complicated by the need for reducing equivalents in the form of NAD(P)H. The high price and molecular weight of NAD(P)H necessitate in situ recycling of catalytic quantities, which is mostly accomplished by enzymatic oxidation of a cheap co-substrate. The coupled oxidoreduction can be either performed by free enzymes in solution or by whole cells. Reductase selection, the decision between cell-free and whole cell reduction system, coenzyme recycling mode and reaction conditions represent design options that strongly affect bioreduction efficiency. In this paper, each option was critically scrutinized and decision rules formulated based on well-described literature examples. The development chain was visualized as a decision-tree that can be used to identify the most promising route towards the production of a specific chiral alcohol. General methods, applications and bottlenecks in the set-up are presented and key experiments required to "test" for decision-making attributes are defined. The reduction of o-chloroacetophenone to (S)-1-(2-chlorophenyl)ethanol was used as one example to demonstrate all the development steps. Detailed analysis of reported large scale bioreductions identified product isolation as a major bottleneck in process design.

Highly efficient Michael-type addition of acetaldehyde to β-nitrostyrenes by whole resting cells of Escherichia coli expressing 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase

A novel whole cell system based on recombinantly expressed 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase (4-OT) was developed and shown to be an effective biocatalyst for the asymmetric Michael addition of acetaldehyde to β-nitrostyrenes. Optimal ratio of substrates (2mM β-nitrostyrenes and 20mM acetaldehyde) and biocatalyst of 5 g of cell dry weight of biocatalyst per liter was determined. Through further bioprocess improvement by sequential addition of substrate 10mM nitrostyrene biotransformation was achieved within 150 min. Excellent enantioselectivity (>99% ee) and product yields of up to 60% were obtained with β-nitrostyrene substrate. The biotransformation product, 4-nitro-3-phenyl-butanal, was isolated from aqueous media and further transformed into the corresponding amino alcohol. The biocatalyst exhibited lower reaction rates with p-Cl-, o-Cl- and p-F-β-nitrostyrenes with product yields of 38%, 51%, 31% and ee values of 84%, 88% and 94% respectively. The importance of the terminal proline of 4-OT was confirmed by two proline enriched variants and homology modeling.

Harnessing Candida tenuis and Pichia stipitis in whole-cell bioreductions of o-chloroacetophenone: stereoselectivity, cell activity, in situ substrate supply and product removal

Generally, recombinant and native microorganisms can be employed as whole-cell catalysts. The application of native hosts, however, shortens the process development time by avoiding multiple steps of strain construction. Herein, we studied the NAD(P)H-dependent reduction of o-chloroacetophenone by isolated xylose reductases and their native hosts Candida tenuis and Pichia stipitis. The natural hosts were benchmarked against Escherichia coli strains co-expressing xylose reductase and a dehydrogenase for co-enzyme recycling. Xylose-grown cells of C. tenuis and P. stipitis displayed specific o-chloroacetophenone reductase activities of 366 and 90 U gCDW (-1) , respectively, in the cell-free extracts. Fresh biomass was employed in batch reductions of 100 mM o-chloroacetophenone using glucose as co-substrate. Reaction stops at a product concentration of about 15 mM, which suggests sensitivity of the catalyst towards the formed product. In situ substrate supply and product removal by the addition of 40% hexane increased catalyst stability. Optimisation of the aqueous phase led to a (S)-1-(2-chlorophenyl)ethanol concentration of 71 mM (ee > 99.9%) obtained with 44 gCDW L(-1) of C. tenuis. The final difference in productivities between native C. tenuis and recombinant E. coli was < 1.7-fold. The optically pure product is a required key intermediate in the synthesis of a new class of chemotherapeutic substances (polo-like kinase 1 inhibitors).

Shine a light on immobilized enzymes: real-time sensing in solid supported biocatalysts

Enzyme immobilization on solid supports has been key to biotransformation development. Although technologies for immobilization have largely reached maturity, the resulting biocatalysts are not well understood mechanistically. One limitation is that their internal environment is usually inferred from external data. Therefore, biological consequences of the immobilization remain masked by physical effects of mass transfer, obstructing further development. Work reviewed herein shows that opto-chemical sensing performed directly within the solid support enables the biocatalyst's internal environment to be uncovered quantitatively and in real time. Non-invasive methods of intraparticle pH and O2 determination are presented, and their use as process analytical tools for development of heterogeneous biocatalysts is described. Method diversification to other analytes remains a challenging task for the future.