As fundamental building blocks of life, amino acids represent a valuable starting point for active ingredients in pharmaceuticals, and also for artificial nutrition in hospital care. In the past, amino acids were harvested primarily through environmentally damaging methods such as acid-catalyzed hydrolysis or extraction. Today biotechnical processes offer environmentally-friendly and resource-efficient alternatives.
A great amount of amino acids are produced by such means with the bacteria Corynebakterium glutamicum. The Amino GmbH in Frellstadt, Lower Saxony uses strains of this bacterium to synthesize branched-chain amino acids, which are needed in a high state of purity for pharmaceutical purposes.
An important enzyme class for amino acid production are transaminases. Through genome investigations of C. glutamicum, the Amino GmbH was successful in identifying two transaminases which catalyze the synthesis of the branched-chain amino acid L-leucine as a side activity. Targeted alterations in one of the transaminase genes generated an enzyme that converts the leucine prestage with nearly doubled catalytic efficiency.
The second transaminase was successfully crystallized, so that it was possible to construct a structural model. Both project results offer the potential for further improvements in the function of the transaminases, and thus also in the synthesis of amino acids.
An additional project result was the improvement of the valin synthesis: through gene deletion, the creation of the side product L-alanine was reduced by up to 75 %. Simultaneously the water usage is cut by up to 30 % and the energy consumption by 25 %.
Project Operation:
AMINO GmbH
An der Zucker-Raffinerie 9
38373 Frellstedt
Telefon 05355|9100-0
anfrage@amino.de
www.amino.de
Cooperation Partner:
Forschungszentrum Jülich
info@fz-juelich.de
www.fz-juelich.de
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