Research
Immobilization of Acetobacter sp. CCTCC M209061 for efficient asymmetric reduction of ketones and biocatalyst recycling
1 State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China
2 Lab of Applied Biocatalysis, College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China
3 Biomedical Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, Owen Building, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK
4 Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China
Microbial Cell Factories 2012, 11:119 doi:10.1186/1475-2859-11-119
Published: 4 September 2012Abstract
Background
The bacterium Acetobacter sp. CCTCC M209061 is a promising whole-cell biocatalyst with exclusive anti-Prelog stereoselectivity for the reduction of prochiral ketones that can be used to make valuable chiral alcohols such as (R)-4-(trimethylsilyl)-3-butyn-2-ol. Although it has promising catalytic properties, its stability and reusability are relatively poor compared to other biocatalysts. Hence, we explored various materials for immobilizing the active cells, in order to improve the operational stability of biocatalyst.
Results
It was found that Ca-alginate give the best immobilized biocatalyst, which was then coated with chitosan to further improve its mechanical strength and swelling-resistance properties. Conditions were optimized for formation of reusable immobilized beads which can be used for repeated batch asymmetric reduction of 4′-chloroacetophenone. The optimized immobilized biocatalyst was very promising, with a specific activity of 85% that of the free-cell biocatalyst (34.66 μmol/min/g dw of cells for immobilized catalyst vs 40.54 μmol/min/g for free cells in the asymmetric reduction of 4′-chloroacetophenone). The immobilized cells showed better thermal stability, pH stability, solvent tolerance and storability compared with free cells. After 25 cycles reaction, the immobilized beads still retained >50% catalytic activity, which was 3.5 times higher than degree of retention of activity by free cells reused in a similar way. The cells could be recultured in the beads to regain full activity and perform a further 25 cycles of the reduction reaction. The external mass transfer resistances were negligible as deduced from Damkohler modulus Da < <1, and internal mass transfer restriction affected the reduction action but was not the principal rate-controlling step according to effectiveness factors η < 1 and Thiele modulus 0.3<∅ <1.
Conclusions
Ca-alginate coated with chitosan is a highly effective material for immobilization of Acetobacter sp. CCTCC M209061 cells for repeated use in the asymmetric reduction of ketones. Only a small cost in terms of the slightly lower catalytic activity compared to free cells could give highly practicable immobilized biocatalyst.
