L-aspartase

Figure 25. Trace enantiomer analysis of L-aspartic acid (obtained by enzymatic amination of fumarate with L-aspartase and determined as the A -trifluoroacetyl-O-methyl ester) on i.-Chirasil-Val31 [20 mx0.25 mm (i.d.) glass capillary column, 90 CC, 0.4 bar hydrogen] with detection by GLC MS selected ion monitoring (mj 198.1) and multiscanning chromatography (MSC, 8 scans)186.

An electrode for the determination of L-aspaitate is constructed by chemical immobilization of L-aspartase on an ammonia gas-sensing probe. The electrode response is linear in the concentration range 0.7-20 mM with aslope of—59 mV/ decade. The biosensor is stable for more than 20 days (299). 

Decarboxylases of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and lysine and ammonia lyases of histidine, glutamine, and asparagine are also highly selective. Guilbault et al. (1988) described a potentiometric enzyme sensor for the determination of the artificial sweetener aspartame (L-aspartyl-L-phen-ylalanine methylester) based on L-aspartase (EC 4.3.1.1). The ammonia liberated in the enzyme reaction created a slope of 30 mV/decade for the enzyme-covered ammonia sensitive electrode. The specificity of the sensor was excellent however, the measuring time of 40 min per sample appears not to be acceptable. The measuring time has been decreased to about 20 min by coimmobilizing carboxypeptidase A with L-aspartase (Fatibello-Filho et al., 1988). 

Lyases None Lipoxygenase Amino acid decarboxylase Acetolactate decarboxylase D-amino acid oxidase Aldolases Oxynitrilases L-aspartase... 

Typical examples of enzymes involved in food applications are cholinesterase for organophosphorous and carbamate pesticide analysis tyrosinase or laccase for analysis of phenols, quinones, and related compounds glucose oxidase for sugar content analysis, carboxyl esterase, alcohol oxidase, carboxypeptidase, L-aspartase, peptidase, aspartate... 

Similarly, Bacterium cadaveris includes the enzyme L-aspartase (aspartate ammonia lyase). This microorganism can be fixed to a PNH3 electrode and the enzyme catalyses the following reaction for the determination of aspartate [238] ... 

L-aspartic acid fumaric acid + NH aspartase E. coii ... 

A possible explanation for the superiority of the amino donor, L-aspartic add, has come from studies carried out on mutants of E. coli, in which only one of the three transaminases that are found in E. coli are present. It is believed that a branched chain transaminase, an aromatic amino add transaminase and an aspartate phenylalanine aspartase can be present in E. coli. The reaction of each of these mutants with different amino donors gave results which indicated that branched chain transminase and aromatic amino add transminase containing mutants were not able to proceed to high levels of conversion of phenylpyruvic add to L-phenylalanine. However, aspartate phenylalanine transaminase containing mutants were able to yield 98% conversion on 100 mmol l 1 phenylpyruvic acid. The explanation for this is probably that both branched chain transaminase and aromatic amino acid transminase are feedback inhibited by L-phenylalanine, whereas aspartate phenylalanine transaminase is not inhibited by L-phenylalanine. In addition, since oxaloacetate, which is produced when aspartic add is used as the amino donor, is readily converted to pyruvic add, no feedback inhibition involving oxaloacetate occurs. The reason for low conversion yield of some E. coli strains might be that these E. cdi strains are defident in the aspartate phenylalanine transaminase. 

Of industrial importance at present is die biotransformation of fumarate to L-aspartic add by Escherichia cdi aspartase. Modified versions have been developed, such as the continuous production of L-aspartic add using duolite-ADS-aspartase. A conversion higher than 99% during 3 months on a production scale has been achieved. 

L-aspartic add has been produced on an industrial scale by the Tanabe Seiyaku Co Ltd, Japan, in a batch wise process using whole cells of Escherichia coli with high aspartase activity. In this process, L-aspartic add is produced from fumaric add and ammonia using aspartase, as described in Figure A8.13. 

Many enzymes have absolute specificity for a substrate and will not attack the molecules with common structural features. The enzyme aspartase, found in many plants and bacteria, is such an enzyme [57], It catalyzes the formation of L-aspartate by reversible addition of ammonia to the double bond of fumaric acid. Aspartase, however, does not take part in the addition of ammonia to any other unsaturated acid requiring specific optical and geometrical characteristics. At the other end of the spectrum are enzymes which do not have specificity for a given substrate and act on many molecules with similar structural characteristics. A good example is the enzyme chymotrypsin, which catalyzes hydrolysis of many different peptides or polypeptides as well as amides and esters. 

L-aspartic acid by ammonia addition to fumaric acid by aspartase (from E. coli)... 

Historically, L-aspartic acid was produced by hydrolysis of asparagine, by isolation from protein hydrolysates, or by the resolution of chemically synthesized d,L-aspartate. With the discovery of aspartase (L-aspartate ammonia lyase, EC 4.3.1.1),57 fermentation routes to L-aspartic acid quickly superseded the initial chemical methods. These processes are far more cost effective than the fermentation routes, and aspartate is now made exclusively by enzymatic methods that use variations of the general approach outlined in Scheme 2.19.53-57-65... 

Lyases are an attractive group of enzymes from a commercial perspective, as demonstrated by then-use in many industrial processes.240 They catalyze the cleavage of C-C, C-N, C-O, and other bonds by means other than hydrolysis, often forming double bonds. For example, two well-studied ammonia lyases, aspartate ammonia lyase (aspartase) (E.C. 4.3.1.1) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) (E.C. 4.3.1.5), catalyze the trans-elimination of ammonia from the amino acids, l-aspartate and L-phenylalanine, respectively. Most commonly used in the synthetic mode, the reverse reaction has been used to prepare the L-amino acids at the ton scale (Schemes 19.30 and 19.31).240 242 These reactions are conducted at very high substrate concentrations such that the equilibrium is shifted, resulting in very high conversion to the amino acid products. 

Aspartase exhibits incredibly strict substrate specificity and thus is of little use in the preparation of L-aspartic acid analogues. However, a number of L-phenylalanine analogues have been prepared with various PAL enzymes from the yeast strains Rhodotorula graminis, Rhodotorula rubra, Rhodoturula glutinis, and several other sources that have been cloned into E. call.243 241 Future work in this area will likely include protein engineering to design new enzymes that offer a broader substrate specificity such that additional L-phenylalanine analogues could be prepared. 

An example of a project of this nature is the screening for microorganisms to produce aspartame (28) from a precursor that is easy synthesized by chemical methods. Microorganisms were screened for their ability to catalyze the trans-addition of ammonia across the double bond of /V-fumaryl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (FumPM) (74) (Scheme 19.43).403 This is essentially the reaction of a mutated aspartase because the native enzyme has such strict substrate specificity (see Section 19.2.4). Although the literature touts this as a successful screening effort, this process has not been practiced commercially because the yields are extremely low.404405... 

Alanine and aspartic acid are produced commercially utilizing enzymes. In the case of alanine, the process of decarboxylation of aspartic acid by the aspartate decarboxylase from Pseudomonas dacunhae is commercialized. The annual world production of alanine is about 200 tons. Aspartic acid is produced commercially by condensing fumarate and ammonia using aspartase from Escherichia coli. This process has been made more convenient with an enzyme immobilization technique. Aspartic acid is used primarily as a raw material with phenylalanine to produce aspartame, a noncaloric sweetener. Production and sales of aspartame have increased rapidly since its introduction in 1981. Tyrosine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, arginine, glutamine, proline, histidine, cit-rulline, L-dopa, homoserine, ornithine, cysteine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine also can be produced by enzymatic methods. 

Aspartase. Tanabe Seiyaku has used aspartase in lysed E. coli cells immobilized by entrapment in polyacrylamide (3) or K-carra-geenan (38) for production of aspartic acid since 1973. Using a substrate stream containing 1 M ammonium fumarate and 1 mM Mg2+ at pH 8.5 and 37°C, a continuous, automated bioreactor with a 120-day half-life will produce L-aspartate at 60% of the cost of a batch fermentation (3). Recently, a process for immobilization of the cells in polyurethane has also been described (37). 

Fumarase. The development and use of this immobilized enzyme by Tanabe Seiyaku for production of L-malic acid is very similar to that of aspartase ( 3). Lysed Brevibacterium ammoniagenes or B. flavin cells are treated with bile acid to destroy enzymatic activity which converts fumarate to succinate. As with aspartase, the cells can be immobilized in polyacrylamide or k-carrageenan gels. Using a substrate stream of 1 M sodium fumarate at pH 7.0 and 37°C, L-malic acid of high purity has been produced since 1974 by a continuous, automated process (3,39) for example, using a 1000-L fixed-bed bioreactor, 42.2 kg L-malic acid per hour was produced continuously for 6 months. 

Examples of the use of immobilized enzymes in food processing and analysis have been listed by Olson and Richardson (1974) and Hultin (1983). L-aspartic acid and L-malic acid are produced by using enzymes contained in whole microorganisms that are immobilized in a polyacrylamide gel. The enzyme aspartase from Escherichia coli is used for the production of aspartic acid. Fumarase from Brevibacterium ammoni-agenes is used for L-malic acid production. 

Thus, in the action of the enzyme aspartase, fumaric acid, 39, is transformed into L-aspartic acid, 40. This process can be considered as a result of three steps ... 

Thus, for aspartase (aspartate ammonia-lyase) the reaction direction is L-aspartate - fumarate + NH 3. The enzyme uses L-aspartate but not the D-enantiomer the product is fumarate not maleate. Hence, this enzyme has strict substrate and product selectivity. For greater detail, this could read strict substrate enantioselectivity and product diastereoselectivity. If necessary, information concerning prochirality could be conveyed in the same way for this same enzyme there is substrate diastereoselectivity for the protons at C-3. 

Such interference falls into two classes competitive substrates and substances that either aaivate or inhibit the enzyme. With some enzymes, such as urease, the only substrate that reacts at reasonable rate is urease hence, the urease-coated electrode is specific for use (59, 165). Likewise, uricase acts almost specifically on uric acid (167), and aspartase on aspartic acid (8, 168). Others, such as penicillinase and amino oxidase, are less specific (63,169,170). Alcohol oxidase responds to methanol, ethanol, and allyl alcohol (171, 172). Hence, in using electrodes of these enzymes, the analyte must be separated if two or more are present (172). Assaying L-amino acids by using either the decarboxylative or the deaminating enzymes, each of which acts specifically on a different amino... 

The industrial preparation of L-aspartic acid by the amination of ( )-2-butenedioic acid (fumaric acid) made use of some form of immobilized aspartase (free cell), which were replaced by microbial whole cells, resulting in reduced costs and simplified operations 38a d. 

L-aspartic acid Fumaric acid Escherichia coli (aspartase) ... 

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