John P. N. Rosazza

Review: Biocatalytic transformations of ferulic acid: an abundant aromatic natural product

In this review we examine the fascinating array of microbial and enzymatic transformations of ferulic acid. Ferulic acid is an extremely abundant, preformed phenolic aromatic chemical found widely in nature. Ferulic acid is viewed as a commodity scale, renewable chemical feedstock for biocatalytic conversion to other useful aromatic chemicals. Most attention is focused on bioconversions of ferulic acid itself. Topics covered include cinnamoyl side-chain cleavage; nonoxidative decarboxylation; mechanistic details of styrene formation; purification and characterization of ferulic acid decarboxylase; conversion of ferulic acid to vanillin;O-demethylation; and reduction reactions. Biotransformations of vinylgualacol are discussed, and selected biotransformations of vanillic acid including oxidative and nonoxidative decarboxylation are surveyed. Finally, enzymatic oxidative dimerization and polymerization reactions are reviewed.

Microbial models of mammalian metabolism. Aromatic hydroxylation

Abstract The potential for selected microorganisms to hydroxylate aromatic substrates in a manner analogous to mammalian systems has been studied. Based on literature precedence and prior experience, 11 microorganisms were chosen from among a variety of genera of fungi and bacterial species and were incubated with 13 model compounds including acetanilide, acronycine, aniline, anisole, benzene, benzoic acid, biphenyl, chlorobenzene, coumarin, naphthalene, nitrobenzene, trans -stilbene, and toluene. In most instances, the microbial model system yielded patterns of phenolic metabolites similar to those reported with cytochrome P 450 monooxygenases of hepatic microsomes and/or in vivo mammalian systems. Furthermore, N -acetylation of aniline, N -deacetylation of acetanilide, and O -demethylation of anisole were found with certain organisms. The potential usefulness of microbial systems for the synthesis of preparative quantities of mammalian metabolites of foreign organic compounds is discussed.

Reduction of carboxylic acids by Nocardia aldehyde oxidoreductase requires a phosphopantetheinylated enzyme.

Aldehyde oxidoreductase (carboxylic acid reductase (Car)) catalyzes the magnesium-, ATP-, and NADPH-dependent reduction of carboxylic acids to their corresponding aldehydes. Heterologous expression of the car gene in Escherichia coli afforded purified recombinant enzyme with a specific activity nearly 50-fold lower than that of purified native Nocardia sp. enzyme. The 5-fold increase in specific activity obtained by incubating purified recombinant Car with CoA and Nocardia cell-free extracts indicated that post-translational phosphopantetheinylation of Car is required for maximum enzyme activity. Nocardia phosphopantetheine transferase (PPTase) expressed in E. coli was isolated and characterized. When incubated with [3H]acetyl-CoA and Nocardia PPTase, the labeled acetylphosphopantetheine moiety was incorporated into recombinant Car. Coexpression of Nocardia Car and PPTase in E. coli gave a reductase with nearly 20-fold higher specific activity. Site-directed mutagenesis in which Ser689 was replaced with Ala resulted in an inactive Car mutant. The results show that Car expressed in Escherichia coli is an apoenzyme that is converted to a holoenzyme by post-translational modification via phosphopantetheinylation. Doubly recombinant resting E. coli cells efficiently reduce vanillic acid to vanillin.

Nocardia sp. Carboxylic Acid Reductase: Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a New Aldehyde Oxidoreductase Family

ABSTRACT We have cloned, sequenced, and expressed the gene for a unique ATP- and NADPH-dependent carboxylic acid reductase (CAR) from a Nocardia species that reduces carboxylic acids to their corresponding aldehydes. Recombinant CAR containing an N-terminal histidine affinity tag had Km values for benzoate, ATP, and NADPH that were similar to those for natural CAR, and recombinant CAR reduced benzoic, vanillic, and ferulic acids to their corresponding aldehydes. car is the first example of a new gene family encoding oxidoreductases with remote acyl adenylation and reductase sites.

Biocatalytic synthesis of vanillin.

ABSTRACT The conversions of vanillic acid and O-benzylvanillic acid to vanillin were examined by using whole cells and enzyme preparations of Nocardia sp. strain NRRL 5646. With growing cultures, vanillic acid was decarboxylated (69% yield) to guaiacol and reduced (11% yield) to vanillyl alcohol. In restingNocardia cells in buffer, 4-O-benzylvanillic acid was converted to the corresponding alcohol product without decarboxylation. PurifiedNocardia carboxylic acid reductase, an ATP and NADPH-dependent enzyme, quantitatively reduced vanillic acid to vanillin. Structures of metabolites were established by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectral analyses.

Biocatalysis in natural products chemistry

Abstract The properties of enzymes and microbial cells as biocatalysts useful in natural products chemistry are discussed from the perspective of the chemical transformations they catalyse. Attention is focused on numerous reactions of value to natural products chemists, including the acyloin condensation, Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, regio- and enantioselective ester hydrolyses, oxidations of aromatic and non-aromatic substrates, oxidoreduction and O - and N -dealkylations. Compounds considered in this review include amino acids, alkaloids, antibiotics, coumarins, naphthoquinones, quassinoids, rotenoids and mono-, sesqui-, di- and triterpenoid substrates. The value of biocatalysis compared with traditional chemical catalysis is considered within the broad framework of natural products chemistry, and the potential for using immobilized enzyme and cell technology is presented.

Microbial models of soil metabolism: biotransformations of danofloxacin

Danofloxacin is a new synthetic fluoroquinolone antibacterial agent under development for exclusive use in veterinary medicine. Such use could lead to deposition of low levels of danofloxacin residues in the environment in manure from treated livestock. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential for indigenous soil microorganisms to metabolize danofloxacin. Cultures of 72 soil microorganisms representing a diverse panel of bacteria, fungi and yeast were incubated with danofloxacin mesylate substrate and samples analyzed periodically by high performance liquid chromatography for loss of danofloxacin and formation of metabolites. Some samples were further analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry to confirm metabolite identification. Twelve organisms, representing eight different genera, biotransformed danofloxacin to metabolites detectable by the chromatographic methods employed. Two Mycobacterium species, two Pseudomonas species, and isolates of Nocardia sp, Rhizopus arrhizus and Streptomyces griseus all formed N-desmethyldanofloxacin. The formation of the 7-amino danofloxacin derivative, 1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-7-amino-4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxylic acid by cultures of Candida lipopytica, Pseudomonas fluorescens, two Mycobacterium species and three Penicillium species demonstrates the propensities of these cultures to completely degrade the piperazine ring. At least two additional and unidentified metabolite peaks were observed in chromatograms of Aspergillus nidulans and Penicillium sp cultures. Radiolabled [2-14C]danofloxacin added to cultures of the fungus Curvularia lunata was apparently mineralized, with approximately 31% of the radiolabel recovered as volatile metabolites after 24 h of incubation, indicating the susceptibility of the quinolone ring to microbial metabolic degradation.

Aldehyde oxidoreductase as a biocatalyst: Reductions of vanillic acid

Aldehyde oxidoreductase (carboxylic acid reductase) catalyzes the Mg(2+), ATP and NADPH dependent reduction of carboxylic acids to their corresponding aldehydes. The identification of the gene from Nocardia sp. NRRL 5646 and its expression in E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pHAT305 provided an avenue to develop a biocatalyst for reduction of carboxylic acids. In addition to aromatic acids, the recombinant carboxylic acid reductase also accepts several aliphatic mono, di and tri carboxylic acids as substrates. A recently identified Nocardia sp., phosphopantetheinyl transferase gene (npt) enhanced the activity of carboxylic acid reductase. Coexpression of car and npt in E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pPV2.83 resulted in a purified recombinant carboxylic acid reductase with improved specific activity of 2.2U/mg protein. The utility of the recombinant carboxylic acid reductase as a biocatalyst has been demonstrated using vanillic acid as substrate. E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pHAT305 expressing Car reduced 50% of vanillic acid to vanillin in 10h. E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pPV2.83 resting cells expressing Car and Npt reduced 90% of vanillic acid to vanillin in 6h. Enhanced, in vivo cofactor NADPH regeneration by glucose dehydrogenase (gdh) was accomplished using E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pPV2.85, that carried car, npt, and gdh. Resting cell reactions using E. coli BL21-CodonPlus(®)(DE3)-RP/pPV2.85 with in situ product removal by XAD-2 resin efficiently reduced 5g/L of vanillic and benzoic acids within 2h.

Decarboxylation of ferulic acid to 4-vinylguaiacol by Bacillus pumilus in aqueous-organic solvent two-phase systems

Abstract Whole cells of Bacillus pumilus were used to catalyze the decarboxylation of ferulic acid to vinylguaiacol in aqueous 0.1 m phosphate pH 6.8 buffer-organic solvent two-phase systems. Highest biotransformation yields were obtained when hydrocarbons such as n pentane, n -hexane, n -heptane, and n -octane were used as organic phases. The optimal volume ratio of buffer to organic solvent was 1.0. Fedbatch and lower incubation temperature strategies were explored to enhance the synthesis of vinylguaiacol by reducing substrate inhibition. Maximum productivity (1.52 g l −1 h −1 ) of vinylguaiacol was obtained in a fedbatch operation at 37°C where ferulic acid concentrations were maintained between 2–7 g l −1 . The highest level (9.6 g l −1 ) of vinylguaiacol with a productivity of 0.96 g l −1 h −1 was obtained in a whole cell reaction at 25°C in a phosphate buffer:hexane two-phase system.

Microbial transformations of glaucine.

Microbial transformation experiments were conducted with the aporphine alkaloid glaucine. Small-scale screening experiments provided a number of micro-organisms which produced three metabolites. In preparative scale studies, Streptomyces griseus(Ul 1158) produced norglaucine (4) and 2-O-demethylglaucine (6)(predicentrine) in 11 and 14% yield, respectively. Fusarium solani(ATCC 12823) produced didehydroglaucine (3) and a norapor-phinone (10)(an artefact) in 60 and 21% yield, respectively. With racemic glaucine, F. solani preferentially dehydrogenated (+)-(S)-glaucine, and unchanged, optically enriched (–)-(R)-glaucine was recovered from fermentations. N- and O-dealkylation did not occur in stereoselective fashion.