Leucine dehydrogenase (LDH) is widely used in the preparation of L-2-aminobutyric acid (L-2-ABA), however its wide application is limited by 2-ketobutyric acid (2-OBA) inhibition. Firstly, a novel high-throughput screening method of LDH was established, specific enzyme activity and 2-OBA tolerance of Lys72Ala mutant were 33.3% higher than those of the wild type. Subsequently, we constructed a single cell comprised of ivlA , Esldh K72A , fdh and optimized expression through fine-tuning RBS intensity, so that the yield of E. coli BL21/pET28a-R3 ivlA-Esldh K72A -fdh was 2.6 times higher than that of the original strain. As a result, 150 g L-threonine was transformed to 121 g L-2-ABA in 5 L fermenter with 95% molar conversion rate, and a productivity of 5.04 g·L -1 ·h −1 , which is the highest productivity of L-2-ABA currently reported by single-cell biotransformation. In summary, our research provided a green synthesis for L-2-ABA, which has potential for industrial production of drug precursors.
NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductases are crucial biocatalysts for synthesizing chiral compounds. Yet, the industrial implementation of enzymatic redox reactions is often hampered by an insufficient supply of expensive nicotinamide cofactors. Here, a cofactor self-sufficient whole-cell biocatalyst was developed for the enzymatic asymmetric reduction of 2-oxo-4-[(hydroxy)(-methyl)phosphinyl] butyric acid (PPO) to L-phosphinothricin (L-PPT). The endogenous NADP + pool was significantly enhanced by regulating Preiss-Handler pathway toward NAD(H) synthesis and, in the meantime, introducing NAD kinase to phosphorylate NAD(H) toward NADP + . The intracellular NADP(H) concentration displayed a 2.97-fold increase with the strategy compared with the wild-type strain. Furthermore, a recombinant multi-enzyme cascade biocatalytic system was constructed based on the Escherichia coli chassis. In order to balance multi-enzyme co-expression levels, the strategy of modulating rate-limiting enzyme Pm GluDH by RBS strengths regulation successfully increased the catalytic efficiency of PPO conversion. Finally, the cofactor self-sufficient whole-cell biocatalyst effectively converted 300 mM PPO to L-PPT in 2 h without the need to add exogenous cofactors, resulting in a 2.3-fold increase in PPO conversion (%) from 43% to 100%, with a high space-time yield of 706.2 g L −1 d −1 and 99.9% ee . Overall, this work demonstrates a technological example for constructing a cofactor self-sufficient system for NADPH-dependent redox biocatalysis.