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11 Vitamins and Related Compounds: Microbial Production: Akayu Himizu
11 Vitamins and Related Compounds: Microbial Production: Akayu Himizu
SAKAYU SHIMIZU
Kyoto, Japan
1 Introduction 320
2 Water-Soluble Vitamins 320
2.1 Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and Related Coenzymes 320
2.2 Nicotinic Acid, Nicotinamide, and Related Coenzymes 323
2.3 Pantothenic Acid and Coenzyme A 325
2.4 Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) 327
2.5 Biotin 328
2.6 Vitamin B12 328
2.7 L-Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) 328
2.8 Adenosine Triphosphate and Related Nucleotides 330
2.9 S-Adenosylmethionine and Related Nucleosides 331
2.10 Miscellaneous 331
3 Fat-Soluble Vitamins 332
3.1 Vitamin A (Retinoids) and -Carotene (Provitamin A) 332
3.2 Vitamin D 333
3.3 Tocopherols (Vitamin E) 334
3.4 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (Vitamin F Group) 335
3.5 Vitamin K Compounds 335
3.6 Ubiquinone Q (Coenzyme Q) 336
4 Concluding Remarks 336
5 References 337
320 11 Vitamins and Related Compounds: Microbial Production
duced by chemical synthesis or by microbial (see Sect. 2.8). In a similar fashion using the
transformation. The latter uses FMN and C. ammoniagenes ATP generating system, ge-
adenosine 5b-triphosphate (ATP) as the sub- netically engineered strains of Escherichia coli
strates and C. ammoniagenes cells as a source which overexpress flavokinase, and FMN
of FMN adenylyltransferase. In this trans- adenylyltransferase can be used as the catalyst
formation, ATP is generated from adenine and in the transformation from riboflavin (KITA-
phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate is de novo syn- TSUJI et al., 1992) (Fig. 1).
thesized from glucose by the same organism
322 11 Vitamins and Related Compounds: Microbial Production
Tab. 2. Microbial and Enzymatic Processes for the Production of Water-Soluble Vitamins and Coenzymes
Tab. 2. Continued
2.2 Nicotinic Acid, Nicotinamide, of 3-cyanopyridine are used for nicotinic acid
production. Bacterial nitrilase has been shown
and Related Coenzymes to be useful for the same purpose (Fig. 2a). For
example, 3-cyanopyridine is almost stoichio-
The world production of nicotinic acid and metrically converted to nicotinic acid
nicotinamide is estimated to be 22,000 t aP1 (172 g LP1) on incubation with the nitrilase-
[major producers, BASF, Lonza (Switzerland) overexpressed Rhodococcus rhodochrous J1
and Degussa (Germany)]. The major use (ca. cells (NAGASAWA and YAMADA, 1989). The
75%) is for animal nutrition and the remaining same R. rhodochrous enzyme can be used for
for food enrichment and pharmaceutical appli- the production of p-aminobenzoic acid from
cation. Chemical processes involving oxidation p-aminobenzonitrile.
of 5-ethyl-2-methylpyridine or total hydrolysis
324 11 Vitamins and Related Compounds: Microbial Production
Tab. 3. Microbial and Enzymatic Processes for the Production of Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Vitamin E and K1 side chains multiple enzyme system enzymatic conversion from
(Geotrichum candidum) (E)-3-(1b,3b-dioxolane-2b-yl)-2-butene-1-ol
[(S)-2-methyl--butyrolactone] reductase bakers’ yeast, asymmetric reduction of ethyl-4,4-
[(S)-3-methyl--butyrolactone] (Geotrichum sp., etc.) dimethoxy-3-methylcrotonate
[(S)- or (R)--hydroxy- multiple enzyme system stereoselective oxidation of isobutyric acid
isobutyric acid] (Candida sp., etc.)
Fig. 1. Schematic representation for the FAD pro- Fig. 2. Transformation of 3-cyanopyridine to nicoti-
duction from riboflavin (RF) coupled with bacterial nic acid by nitrilase a and nicotinamide by nitrile hy-
ATP-generating system (see also Fig. 8). dratase b.
Nicotinamide is available from partial hy- of nitrile hydratases, especially Co- and Fe-
drolysis of 3-cyanopyridine, which is perform- containing enzymes, in various bacteria (KO-
ed by both chemical and enzymatic processes. BAYASHI et al., in press). The Co-containing en-
The enzymatic process uses nitrile hydratase zyme from R. rhodochrous J1 hydrates various
as the catalyst (Fig. 2b). This novel enzyme ca- kinds of aliphatic and aromatic nitriles to the
talyzing a simple hydration reaction was dis- corresponding amides and has been shown to
covered as one of the responsible enzymes for be useful for the production of useful amides
the two-step transformation of nitriles to acids (YAMADA and KOBAYASHI, 1996). For example,
via amides (ASANO et al., 1980). Extensive stu- using the bacterial cells containing highly ele-
dies of this enzyme as well as screening of the vated amounts of this enzyme exceeding 50%
enzyme from a variety of microbial strains re- of the total cellular proteins, 1.23 kg of 3-cya-
vealed the presence of several different types nopyridine suspended in 1 liter of water are
2 Water-Soluble Vitamins 325
at all (SHIMIZU et al., 1992). Thus, the racemic reaction for 180 times (i.e., 180 d), the immobi-
mixture can be separated into D-pantoic acid lized cells retained about 90% of their initial
and L-pantolactone (Fig. 4). As this lactonase activity (SHIMIZU and KATAOKA, 1996, 1999b;
reaction is an intermolecular ester bond hy- SHIMIZU et al., 1997). The overall process for
drolysis, the pantolactone as the substrate this enzymatic resolution is compared with the
needs not to be modified for resolution, which conventional chemical process in Fig. 5. The
is one of the practical advantages of the use of enzymatic process can skip several tedious
this enzyme. Several filamentous fungi of the steps which are necessary in the chemical reso-
genera Fusarium, Gibberella, and Cylindro- lution. Based on these studies, Fuji (Japan)
carpon show high activity of this enzyme. On changed over their chemical resolution with
incubation with Fusarium oxysporum cells for this enzymatic resolution in 1999.
24 h at pH 7.0, D-pantolactone in a racemic Several enzymatic methods to skip this reso-
mixture (700 g LP1) is almost completely hy- lution step have also been reported. The two-
drolyzed to D-pantoic acid (96% ee) (KATAO- step chemicoenzymatic method, which in-
KA et al., 1995a, b). Practically, this stereospe- volves a one-pot synthesis of ketopantolactone
cific hydrolysis is carried out by F. oxysporum and its stereospecific reduction to D-pantolac-
cells immobilized with calcium alginate gels. tone (SHIMIZU and YAMADA, 1989b; SHIMIZU
When the immobilized cells were incubated in et al., 1997) is practically promising. The chem-
a racemic mixture (350 g LP1) for 21 h at 30 °C, ical synthesis is performed in one step from
90–95% of the D-pantolactone was hydrolyzed isobutyraldehyde, sodium methoxide, diethyl
to D-pantoic acid (90–97% ee). After repeated oxalate, and formalin at room temperature
Fig. 5. Comparison of chemical and enzymatic methods for the optical resolution of D,L-pantolactone.
For abbreviations, see Fig. 4.
2 Water-Soluble Vitamins 327
with a yield of 81%. The bioreduction is per- ATP abundantly occur, as the catalyst, and
formed in the presence of glucose as an energy these three precursors as the substrates (SHI-
source for the reduction and Candida parapsi- MIZU and YAMADA, 1986, 1989b). On cultiva-
losis cells with high carbonyl reductase activity tion of the bacterium in a medium containing
as the catalyst. In this bioreduction, ketopanto- glucose (10%), D-pantothenic acid, L-cysteine
lactone is stoichiometrically converted to D- and AMP (or adenine), from which ATP is ef-
pantolactone (90 g LP1, 94% ee) with a molar fectively generated by the same bacterium
yield of 100% (HATA et al., 1987). Alternative- (see Sect. 2.8), the yield of CoA was 3–6 g LP1.
ly, ketopantoic acid, which is easily obtained Higher yields (ca. 20 g LP1) were obtained
from ketopantolactone by spontaneous hydro- when 4b-phosphopantothenic acid was used in
lysis under mild alkaline conditions, can be place of D-pantothenic acid or oxypantetheine-
used as the substrate for the stereospecific bio- resistant mutants which were free from the
reduction. In this case, Agrobacterium sp. cells feedback inhibition of pantothenate kinase by
with high activity of ketopantoic acid reduct- CoA were used as the catalyst (SHIMIZU et al.,
ase are used as the catalyst. The yield of 1984). In a similar manner, all the intermedi-
D-pantoic acid was 119 g L (molar yield, ates involved in the biosynthesis of CoA from
P1
90%; optical purity, 98% ee) (KATAOKA et al., D-pantothenic acid, i.e., 4b-phosphopanto-
1990). The chemical step can be replaced by an thenic acid, 4b-phosphopantothenoylcysteine,
enzymatic one using L-pantolactone dehydro- 4b-phosphopantetheine, and 3b-dephospho-
genase of Nocardia asteroides. The enzyme CoA, can be prepared (SHIMIZU and YAMADA,
specifically oxidizes the L-isomer in a racemic 1986, 1989b).
pantolactone mixture to ketopantolactone,
which is then converted to D-pantolactone or
D-pantoic acid by the above mentioned reduc- 2.4 Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6)
tion with C. parapsilosis or Agrobacterium sp.,
respectively (KATAOKA et al., 1991a, b; SHIMI- Vitamin B6 compounds, mainly pyridoxine
ZU et al., 1987) (Fig. 6). and pyridoxal 5b-phosphate, are exclusively
A direct fermentation process for D-pantoic produced by chemical synthesis [ca. 2,500 t
acid and/or D-pantothenic acid is also promis- aP1; major producers, Takeda, Hoffmann-La
ing. A genetically engineered strain of E. coli Roche, Fuji/Daiichi (Japan)]. They have many
overexpressing pantothenic acid biosynthesis pharmaceutical and feed/food applications.
enzymes produced 65 g LP1 D-pantothenic Recent chemical and molecular biology stu-
acid from glucose upon addition of -alanine dies revealed that 1-deoxy-D-xylulose and 4-
as a precursor (HIKICHI et al., 1993). hydroxy-L-threonine are the precursors for the
Coenzyme A (CoA) is used as an analytical biosynthesis of pyridoxine (TAZOE et al.,
reagent and for pharmaceutical, neutraceuti- 2000), but its complete biosynthetic pathway is
cal, and cosmetic applications. A successful not known in detail. Screening for vitamin B6
microbial transformation method uses Brevi- producers among microorganisms found sev-
bacterium ammoniagenes cells, in which all five eral potential strains, such as Klebsiella sp.,
enzymes necessary for the biosynthesis of Flavobacterium sp., Pichia guilliermondii, Ba-
CoA from D-pantothenic acid, L-cysteine, and cillus subtilis, Rhizobium meliloti and so on.