Construction of metal–organic framework-based multienzyme system for l-tert-leucine production

Chiral compounds are important drug intermediates that play a critical role in human life. Herein, we report a facile method to prepare multi-enzyme nano-devices with high catalytic activity and stability. The self-assemble molecular binders SpyCatcher and SpyTag were fused with leucine dehydrogenase and glucose dehydrogenase to produce sc-LeuDH (SpyCatcher-fused leucine dehydrogenase) and GDH-st (SpyTag-fused glucose dehydrogenase), respectively. After assembling, the cross-linked enzymes LeuDH-GDH were formed. The crosslinking enzyme has good pH stability and temperature stability. The coenzyme cycle constant of LeuDH-GDH was always higher than that of free double enzymes. The yield of l - tert -leucine synthesis by LeuDH-GDH was 0.47 times higher than that by free LeuDH and GDH. To further improve the enzyme performance, the cross-linked LeuDH-GDH was immobilized on zeolite imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) via bionic mineralization, forming LeuDH-GDH @ZIF-8. The created co-immobilized enzymes showed even better pH stability and temperature stability than the cross-linked enzymes, and LeuDH-GDH@ZIF-8 retains 70% relative conversion rate in the first four reuses. In addition, the yield of LeuDH-GDH@ZIF-8 was 0.62 times higher than that of LeuDH-GDH, and 1.38 times higher than that of free double enzyme system. This work provides a novel method for developing multi-enzyme nano-device, and the ease of operation of this method is appealing for the construction of other multi-enzymes @MOF systems for the applications in the kinds of complex environment. Graphical abstract