Paper: Organic solvent-tolerant whole-cell biocatalyst for epoxidation of terminal alkenes (2012 Annual Meeting and Exhibition (August 12-16, 2012))

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Columbia Hall, Terrace Level (Washington Hilton)

Akasit Siriphongphaew¹, Pimpaya Pisnupong¹, Jirarut Wongkongkatep¹, Pranee Inprakhon¹, Alisa S. Vangnai², Kohsuke Honda³, Hisao Ohtake³, Junichi Kato⁴, Jun Ogawa⁵, Sakayu Shimizu⁵, Vlada B. Urlacher⁶, Rolf D. Schmid⁷ and Thunyarat Pongtharangkul¹, (1)Biotechnology, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, (2)Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, (3)Department of Biotechnology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, (4)Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan, (5)Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, (6)Institute of Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, (7)Institute of Technical Biochemistry, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

Oxygenases-based whole-cell biocatalyst can be applied for catalysis of various commercially interesting reactions, however, substrates and products of interest are often toxic to the biocatalyst. In this study, an organic solvent-tolerant Bacillus subtilis 3C5N was developed as a whole-cell biocatalyst for epoxidation of a toxic terminal alkene, 1-hexene. Comparing to other hosts tested, higher level of tolerance towards 1-hexene and a moderately hydrophobic cell surface of B. subtilis 3C5N were suggested to contribute to its higher 1,2-epoxyhexane production. Co-expression of GDH partly restored NADPH-regenerating ability of the biocatalyst, resulting in approximately 1.8-fold increase in specific rate and 2-fold increase in product concentration. Unexpectedly, cultivation temperature of the biocatalyst affected its biocatalytic activity significantly.

P9: Organic solvent-tolerant whole-cell biocatalyst for epoxidation of terminal alkenes