Cephalosporin C Acylase from Microbes for One-step Enzymatic Transformation of Cephalosporin C to 7-Aminocephalosporanic Acid

Drugs That Changed Society: History and Current Status of the Early Antibiotics: Salvarsan, Sulfonamides, and β-Lactams

The appearance of antibiotic drugs revolutionized the possibilities for treatment of diseases with high mortality such as pneumonia, sepsis, plaque, diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis. Today fewer than 1% of mortalities in high income countries are caused by diseases caused by bacteria. However, it should be recalled that the antibiotics were introduced in parallel with sanitation including sewerage, piped drinking water, high standard of living and improved understanding of the connection between food and health. Development of salvarsan, sulfonamides, and β-lactams into efficient drugs is described. The effects on life expectancy and life quality of these new drugs are indicated.

Development of a Combination Fermentation Strategy to Simultaneously Increase Biomass and Enzyme Activity of D-amino Acid Oxidase Expressed in Escherichia coli

D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) is widely used in the industrial preparation of L-amino acids, and cultivating Escherichia coli (E. coli) expressing DAAO for the biosynthesis of L-phosphinothricin (L-PPT) is very attractive. At present, the biomass production of DAAO by fermentation is still limited in large-scale industrial applications because the expression of DAAO during the fermentation process inhibits the growth of host cells, which limits higher cell density. In this study, the factors that inhibit the growth of bacterial cells during a 5-L fed-batch fermentation process were explored, and the fermentation process was optimized by co-expressing catalase (CAT), by balancing the biomass and the enzyme activity, and by adding exogenous D-alanine (D-Ala) to relieve the limitation of DAAO on the cells and optimize fermentation. Under optimal conditions, the DO-STAT feeding mode with DO controlled at 30% ± 5% and the addition of 27.5 g/L lactose mixed with 2 g/L D-Ala during induction at 28 °C resulted in the production of 26.03 g dry cell weight (DCW)/L biomass and 390.0 U/g DCW specific activity of DAAO; an increase of 78% and 84%, respectively, compared with the initial fermentation conditions. The fermentation strategy was successfully scale-up to a 5000-L fermenter.