A Tri‐Enzyme Cascade for Efficient Production of L‐2‐Aminobutyrate from L‐Threonine

Abstract

AbstractL‐2‐aminobutyrate (L‐ABA) is an important chiral drug intermediate with a key role in modern medicinal chemistry. Here, we describe the development of an efficient method for the asymmetric synthesis of L‐ABA in a tri‐enzymatic cascade in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) using a cost‐effective L‐Thr. Low activity of leucine dehydrogenase from Bacillus thuringiensis (BtLDH) and unbalanced expression of enzymes in the cascade were major challenges. Mechanism‐based protein engineering generated the optimal triple variant BtLDHM3(A262S/V296C/P150M) with 20.7‐fold increased specific activity and 9.6‐fold increased kcat/Km compared with the wild type. Optimizing plasmids with different copy numbers regulated enzymatic expression, thereby increasing the activity ratio (0.3 : 1:0.6) of these enzymes in vivo close to the optimal ratio (0.4 : 1 : 1) in vitro. Importing the optimal triple mutant BtLDHM3 into our constructed pathway in vivo and optimization of transformation conditions achieved one‐pot conversion of L‐Thr to 130.2 g/L L‐ABA, with 95 % conversion, 99 % e.e. and 10.9 g L−1 h−1 productivity (the highest to date) in 12 h on a 500 mL scale. These results describe a potential biosynthesis approach for the industrial production of L‐ABA.