Bioproduction of l-2-Aminobutyric Acid by a Newly-Isolated Strain of Aspergillus tamarii ZJUT ZQ013

Abstract l -2-Aminobutyric acid ( l -ABA), an unnatural amino acid, is a key intermediate of several important drugs. Although some methods have been developed to prepare pure chiral l -ABA, there are still many drawbacks, including low catalytic efficiency, cumbersome steps and high cost due to the addition of some expensive catalysts or coenzymes. Herein, with chemical and biological approaches together, we discovered a newly isolated Aspergillus tamarii ZJUT ZQ013 strain containing a microbial lipase which could be employed to resolve racemic methyl N -Boc-2-aminobutyrate to produce l -ABA with high enantioselectivity (e.e. s  > 99.9%, E = 257). Moreover, the subsequent gram scale experiment confrimed that A. tamarii ZJUT ZQ013 could be an attractive biocatalyst for the efficient preparation of optically pure acid. Graphical Abstract