A recombinant enoate reductase was expressed in cyanobacteria and used for the light-catalyzed, enantioselective reduction of C=C bonds. The coupling of oxidoreductases to natural photosynthesis allows asymmetric syntheses fueled by the oxidation of water. Bypassing the addition of sacrificial cosubstrates as electron donors significantly improves the atom efficiency and avoids the formation of undesired side products. Crucial factors for product formation are the availability of NADPH and the amount of active enzyme in the cells. The efficiency of the reaction is comparable to typical whole-cell biotransformations in E. coli. Under optimized conditions, a solution of 100 mg prochiral 2-methylmaleimide was reduced to optically pure 2-methylsuccinimide (99 % ee, 80 % yield of isolated product). High product yields and excellent optical purities demonstrate the synthetic usefulness of light-catalyzed whole-cell biotransformations using recombinant cyanobacteria.

Photosynthetic water-splitting is a powerful force to drive selective redox reactions. The need of highly expensive redox partners such as NADPH and their regeneration is one of the main bottlenecks for the application of biocatalysis at an industrial scale. Recently, the possibility of using the photosystem of cyanobacteria to supply high amounts of reduced nicotinamide to a recombinant enoate reductase opened a new strategy for overcoming this hurdle. This paper presents the expansion of the photosynthetic regeneration system to a Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase. Despite the potential of this strategy, this work also presents some of the encountered challenges as well as possible solutions, which will require further investigation. The successful enzymatic oxygenation shows that cyanobacterial whole-cell biocatalysis is an applicable approach that allows fuelling selective oxyfunctionalisation reactions at the expense of light and water. Yet, several hurdles such as side-reactions and the cell-density limitation, probably due to self-shading of the cells, will have to be overcome on the way to synthetic applications.

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BackgroundGlobal resource depletion poses a dramatic threat to our society and creates a strong demand for alternative resources that do not compete with the production of food. Meeting this challenge requires a thorough rethinking of all steps of the value chain regarding their sustainability resource demand and the possibility to substitute current, petrol-based supply-chains with renewable resources. This regards also the production of catalysts for chemical synthesis. Phototrophic microorganisms have attracted considerable attention as a biomanufacturing platform for the sustainable production of chemicals and biofuels. They allow the direct utilization of carbon dioxide and do not compete with food production. Photosynthetic enzyme production of catalysts would be a sustainable supply of these important components of the biotechnological and chemical industries. This paper focuses on the usefulness of recombinant cyanobacteria for the photosynthetic expression of enantioselective catalysts. As a proof of concept, we used the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 for the heterologous expression of two highly enantioselective enzymes.ResultsWe investigated the expression yield and the usefulness of cyanobacterial cell extracts for conducting stereoselective reactions. The cyanobacterial enzyme expression achieved protein yields of 3% of total soluble protein (%TSP) while the expression in E. coli yielded 6-8% TSP. Cell-free extracts from a recombinant strain expressing the recombinant esterase ST0071 from the thermophilic organism Sulfolobus tokodai ST0071 and arylmalonate decarboxylase from Bordetella bronchiseptica showed excellent enantioselectivity (>99% ee) and yield (>91%) in the desymmetrisation of prochiral malonates.ConclusionsWe were able to present the proof-of-concept of photoautotrophic enzyme expression as a viable alternative to heterotrophic expression hosts. Our results show that the introduction of foreign genes is straightforward. Cell components from Synechocystis did not interfere with the stereoselective transformations, underlining the usability of photoautotrophic organisms for the production of enzymes. Given the considerable commercial value of recombinant biocatalysts, cyanobacterial enzyme expression has thus the potential to complement existing approaches to use phototrophic organisms for the production of chemicals and biofuels.

Oxidoreductases belong to the most-applied industrial enzymes. Nevertheless, they need external electrons whose supply is often costly and challenging. Recycling of the electron donors NADH or NADPH requires the use of additional enzymes and sacrificial substrates. Interestingly, several oxidoreductases accept hydrogen peroxide as electron donor. While being inexpensive, this reagent often reduces the stability of enzymes. A solution to this problem is the in situ generation of the cofactor. The continuous supply of the cofactor at low concentration drives the reaction without impairing enzyme stability. This paper demonstrates a method for the light-catalyzed in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide with the example of the heme-dependent fatty acid decarboxylase OleT JE . The fatty acid decarboxylase OleT JE was discovered due to its unique ability to produce long-chain 1-alkenes from fatty acids, a hitherto unknown enzymatic reaction. 1-alkenes are widely used additives for plasticizers and lubricants. OleT JE has been shown to accept electrons from hydrogen peroxide for the oxidative decarboxylation. While addition of hydrogen peroxide damages the enzyme and results in low yields, in situ generation of the cofactor circumvents this problem. The photobiocatalytic system shows clear advantages regarding enzyme activity and yield, resulting in a simple and efficient system for fatty acid decarboxylation.