Optimisation of the biocatalytic resolution of styrene oxide by whole cells of Rhodotorula glutinis

Significant improvement in catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of a Phaseolus vulgaris epoxide hydrolase, PvEH3, towards ortho-cresyl glycidyl ether based on the semi-rational design

The investigation of substrate spectrum towards five racemic (rac-) aryl glycidyl ethers (1a-5a) indicated that E. coli/pveh3, an E. coli BL21(DE3) transformant harboring a PvEH3-encoding gene pveh3, showed the highest EH activity and enantiomeric ratio (E) towards rac-3a. For efficiently catalyzing the kinetic resolution of rac-3a, the activity and E value of PvEH3 were further improved by site-directed mutagenesis of selected residues. Based on the semi-rational design of an NC-loop in PvEH3, four single-site variants of pveh3 were amplified by PCR, and intracellularly expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3), respectively. E. coli/pveh3^E134K and /pveh3^T137P had the enhanced EH activities of 15.3 ± 0.4 and 16.1 ± 0.5 U/g wet cell as well as E values of 21.7 ± 1.0 and 21.2 ± 1.1 towards rac-3a. Subsequently, E. coli/pveh3^E134K/T137P harboring a double-site variant gene was also constructed, having the highest EH activity of 22.4 ± 0.6 U/g wet cell and E value of 24.1 ± 1.2. The specific activity of the purified PvEH3^E134K/T137P (14.5 ± 0.5 U/mg protein) towards rac-3a and its catalytic efficiency (k_cat/K_m of 5.67 mM^-1 s^-1) for (S)-3a were 1.7- and 3.54-fold those (8.4 ± 0.3 U/mg and 1.60 mM^-1 s^-1) of PvEH3. The gram-scale kinetic resolution of rac-3a using whole wet cells of E. coli/pveh3^E134K/T137P was performed at 20 °C for 7.0 h, producing (R)-3a with 99.4% ee_s and 38.5 ± 1.2% yield. Additionally, the mechanism of PvEH3^E134K/T137P with remarkably improved E value was analyzed by molecular docking simulation.

Bioresolution of racemic phenyl glycidyl ether by a putative recombinant epoxide hydrolase from Streptomyces griseus NBRC 13350

In order to produce enantiomerically pure epoxides for the synthesis of value-added chemicals, a novel putative epoxide hydrolase (EH) sgeh was cloned and overexpressed in pET28a/Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The 1047 bp sgeh gene was mined from Streptomyces griseus NBRC 13350 genome sequence. The recombinant hexahistidyl-tagged SGEH was purified (16.6-fold) by immobilized metal-affinity chromatography, with 90% yield as a homodimer of 100 kDa. The recombinant E. coli whole cells overexpressing SGEH could kinetically resolve racemic phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE) into (R)-PGE with 98% ee, 40% yield, and enantiomeric ratio (E) of 20. This was achieved under the optimized reaction conditions i.e. cell/substrate ratio of 20:1 (w/w) at pH 7.5 and 20 °C in 10% (v/v) dimethylformamide (DMF) in a 10 h reaction. 99% enantiopure (R)-PGE was obtained when the reaction time was prolonged to 12 h with a yield of 34%. In conclusion, an economically viable and environment friendly green process for the production of enantiopure (R)-PGE was developed by using wet cells of E. coli expressing recombinant SGEH.

Improvement of steroid biotransformation with hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin induced complexation

The inclusion complexes induced by cyclodextrins and its derivates have been shown previously to enhance the biotransformation of hydrophobic compounds. Using hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD; 20% w/v), the water solubility of cortisone acetate increased from 0.039 to 7.382 g L(-1) at 32 degrees C. The solubilization effect of HP-beta-CD was far superior to dimethylformamide (DMF) and ethanol. The dissolution rate also significantly increased in the presence of HP-beta-CD. The enzymatic stability of Delta(1)-dehydrogenase from Arthrobacter simplex TCCC 11037 was not influenced by the increasing concentrations of HP-beta-CD contrary to the organic cosolvents which negatively influenced in the order DMF > ethanol. The activity inhibition effect caused by HP-beta-CD was not so conspicuous as ethanol and DMF. Inactivation constants of ethanol, DMF, and HP-beta-CD were 5.832, 4.541, and 1.216, respectively. The inactivation energy (E (a)) was in the order of HP-beta-CD (55.1 kJ mol(-1)) > ethanol (39.9 kJ mol(-1)) > DMF (37.1 kJ mol(-1)).

Biosynthesis of (R)-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol from racemic styrene oxide by using bacterial and marine fish epoxide hydrolases

Enantio-convergent hydrolysis of racemic styrene oxides was achieved to prepare enantiopure (R)-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol by using two recombinant epoxide hydrolases (EHs) of a bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus, and a marine fish, Mugil cephalus. The recombinant C. crescentus EH primarily attacked the benzylic carbon of (S)-styrene oxide, while the M. cephalus EH preferentially attacked the terminal carbon of (R)-styrene oxide, thus leading to the formation of (R)-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol as the main product. (R)-Phenyl-1,2-ethanediol was obtained with 90% enantiomeric excess and yield as high as 94% from 50 mM racemic styrene oxides in a one-pot process.