Development of engineered Escherichia coli whole-cell biocatalysts for high-level conversion of l-lysine into cadaverine

A whole-cell biocatalytic system for the production of cadaverine from l-lysine has been developed. Among the investigated lysine decarboxylases from different microorganisms, Escherichia coli LdcC showed the best performance on cadaverine synthesis when E. coli XL1-Blue was used as the host strain. Six different strains of E. coli expressing E. coli LdcC were investigated and recombinant E. coli XL1-Blue, BL21(DE3) and W were chosen for further investigation since they showed higher conversion yield of lysine into cadaverine. The effects of substrate pH, substrate concentrations, buffering conditions, and biocatalyst concentrations have been investigated. Finally, recombinant E. coli XL1-Blue concentrated to an OD₆₀₀ of 50, converted 192.6 g/L (1317 mM) of crude lysine solution, obtained from an actual lysine manufacturing process, to 133.7 g/L (1308 mM) of cadaverine with a molar yield of 99.90 %. The whole-cell biocatalytic system described herein is expected to be applicable to the development of industrial bionylon production process.