Abstract
2-chloronicotinic acid (2-CA) is a key precursor for the synthesis of a series of pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Nitrilase-catalyzed bioprocess is a promising method for 2-CA production from 2-chloronicotinonitrile (2-CN). In this study, a mutant of nitrilase from Rhodococcus zopfii (RzNIT/W167G) was constitutively overexpressed with Escherichia coli as host, which exhibited a onefold increase in enzymatic activity compared with inducible expression. Biosynthesis of 2-CA using whole cells harboring nitrilase as biocatalysts were investigated and 318.5 mM 2-CA was produced, which was the highest level for 2-CA production catalyzed by nitrilase to date. 2-CA was recovered from the reaction mixture through a simple acidification step with a recovery yield of 90%. This study developed an efficient bioprocess for 2-CA with great potential for industrial application.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0129400) and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LR19B060001).
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Dai, AD., Wu, ZM., Zheng, RC. et al. Constitutive expression of nitrilase from Rhodococcus zopfii for efficient biosynthesis of 2-chloronicotinic acid. 3 Biotech 12, 50 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-022-03119-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-022-03119-0