Metabolic Engineering toward Sustainable Production of Nylon-6

• DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.5b00129
• Publication Date: 2015-10-29T02:48:08Z
• Authors: Stefan C. H. J. Turk; Wigard P. Klooste...; Dennis K. Ninaber; Karin P. A. M. Kolen; Julia Knutova; Erwin Suir; Martin Schürmann; Petronella C. Rae...; Monika Müller; Stefaan M. A. de ...; Leonie M. Raamsdonk; Ruud van der Pol; Liang Wu; Margarida F. Temudo; Rob A. M. van der...; Michiel Akeroyd; Roland E. van der...; Henk J. Noorman; Roel A. L. Bovenberg; Axel C. Trefzer
• Keywords: Metabolic Engineering; Caprolactam; Industrial microbiology; Metabolic pathway; Synthetic Biology; Protein Engineering; Bioconversion; Corynebacterium glutamicum; Adipic acid; Sustainable Production

Nylon-6 is a bulk polymer used for many applications. It consists of the non-natural building block 6-aminocaproic acid, linear form caprolactam. Via retro-synthetic approach, two synthetic pathways were identified fermentative production acid. Both require yet unreported novel biocatalytic steps. We demonstrated proof these bioconversions by in vitro enzyme assays with set selected candidate proteins expressed Escherichia coli. One biosynthetic starts 2-oxoglutarate and contains ketoacid elongation pathway known from methanogenic archaea. This was implementation E. coli yielded acid at levels up to 160 mg/L lab-scale batch fermentations. The total amount related intermediates generated this exceeded 2 g/L fed-batch fermentations, indicating its potential further optimization toward large-scale sustainable nylon-6.