Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for cadaverine fermentation

Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2007 Sep;71(9):2130-5. doi: 10.1271/bbb.60699.

Abstract

Cadaverine, the expected raw material of polyamides, is produced by decarboxylation of L-lysine. If we could produce cadaverine from the cheapest sugar, and as a renewable resource, it would be an effective solution against global warming, but there has been no attempt to produce cadaverine from glucose by fermentation. We focused on Corynebacterium glutamicum, whose L-lysine fermentation ability is superior, and constructed a metabolically engineered C. glutamicum in which the L-homoserine dehydrogenase gene (hom) was replaced by the L-lysine decarboxylase gene (cadA) of Escherichia coli. In this recombinant strain, cadaverine was produced at a concentration of 2.6 g/l, equivalent to up to 9.1% (molecular yield) of the glucose transformed into cadaverine in neutralizing cultivation. This is the first report of cadaverine fermentation by C. glutamicum.

MeSH terms

  • Cadaverine / chemistry
  • Cadaverine / metabolism*
  • Corynebacterium glutamicum / genetics*
  • Corynebacterium glutamicum / metabolism*
  • Fermentation*
  • Genetic Engineering*
  • Lysine / metabolism
  • Molecular Structure
  • Open Reading Frames / genetics

Substances

  • Lysine
  • Cadaverine