L-Aspartate ammonia lyase

A single enzyme, L-aspartate ammonia lyase obtained from E. coli is used acting on ammonium fumarate substrate. Little cell activity was lost upon immobilisation. Initially polyacrylamide was used as the immobilisation medium, and later cross-linked K-carrageenan was used, as higher operational life-times for the biocatalyst were obtained. The immobilized cell activity is very stable with a half-life of 120 days, while achieving 95% conversion of substrate into product. 

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the discovery of aspartase (L-aspartate ammonia lyase, EC 4.3.1.1),57 fermentation routes to L-aspartic acid quickly superseded the initial chemical methods.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... 

A biocatalytic enantioselective addition of ammonia to a C=C bond of an afl-unsaturated compound, namely fumaric acid, makes the manufacture of L-aspar-tic acid, l-27, possible [30], This L-amino acid represents an important intermediate for the production of the artificial sweetener aspartame. The biocatalytic production process, which is applied on an industrial scale by, e.g., Kyowa Hakko Ko-gyo and Tanabe Seiyaku, is based on the use of an aspartate ammonia lyase [E.C.4.3.1.1] [31]. As a biocatalyst, an immobilized L-aspartate ammonia lyase from Escherichia coli [32, 33] as well as Brevibacterium flavum whole-cell catalysts [32 a, 34] have been applied successfully. 

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. 

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. 

PAL/TAL both belong to the L-amino acid ammonia lyase family, which catalyzes the formation of various a,/3-unsaturated acids by elimination of ammonia (ammonium ion) from the corresponding L-ct-amino acids. This family of proteins includes aspartate ammonia lyase (AAL), methylaspartate ammonia lyase (MAL), HAL,... 

Aspartate ammonia lyase Bacteria Production of L-aspartic acid... 

Chemical inhibition of L-phenylalanine ammonia lyase activity may be achieved by the use of typical carbonyl reagents such as sodium borohydride and potassium cyanide. Treatment of the enzyme with tritiated sodium borohydride and subsequent hydrolysis gave alanine in which the majority of the radioactivity was confined to the jj-methyl group . Similarly reaction with potassium cyanide and hydrolysis gave aspartic acid labelled exclusively in the -carboxyl group . These observations led to the proposal that the active site of the enzyme, like that of the related L-histidine ammonia lyase , contains a dehydro-alanine residue... 

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] ... 

The addition of water to fiimaric acid catalysed by fumarase is a highly stereospecific reaction and malic acid is formed as the sole product (Figure 2.22, X=H). The ammonia lyase 3-methylaspartase catalyses the similar addition of ammonia to yield L-aspartic acid. When uimatural substrates are used in these reactions (X =/= H), less success is experienced. An increasing X-group gives slow reaction rates. 

In addition to resolution approaches, there are three main methods to prepare amino acids by biological methods addition of ammonia to an unsaturated carboxylic acid the conversion of an a-keto acid to an amino acid by transamination from another amino acid, and the reductive animation of an a-keto acid. These approaches are discussed in Chapter 19 and will not be discussed here to avoid duplication. The use of a lyase to prepare L-aspartic acid is included in this chapter as is the use of decarboxylases to access D-glutamic acid. 

Recently a number of enzymatic systems have been developed at several chemical companies including Upases (synthesis of enantiotrope alcohols, R-amid, S-amin), nitrilases (R-mandehc acid), amidases (non-proteinogenic L-amino acids), aspartic acid ammonia lyase (L-aspartic add), penicilin acylase (6-Aminopenicilanic acid), acylases (semisynthetic penicillins), etc.( Koeller and Wong, 2001 and references therin). 

As can be seen from Table 8.7 productivity (expressed in g h b is highest for precursor addition. The production of L-phenylalanine from phenylpyruvic add also has the shortest reaction time to obtain hi conversions. The pH commonly used is around 75, quite normal for biological processes. Only the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia lyase shows an optimiim pH of lO.The process temperature varies between 30 and 40°C with an average of 35°C. No extreme temperatures have been reported due to the fact that denaturation occurs at hi temperatures. The optimal concentration for cells frequently used is 10-20 g 1". However, conversion of ACA is done with hi cell mass concentrations in recent studies possibly to compensate for substrate inhibition and thus to maintain hi product concentration. The processes using PPA and ACA need an amino add as amino donor, usually L-aspartic add is used. 

Fig. 14 L-Aspartic acid production using an L-aspartic acid ammonia lyase.

Ammonia lyases in their natural role are involved in the metabolism of amino acids and also play a role in, for instance, the degradation of amino sugars, but only a limited amount of these enzymes have been characterized biochemically. Application of a broad range of different ammonia and lyases in organic chemical synthesis on an industrial scale has thus far not occurred, which is due to both their limited commercial availability and their lack of stability under process conditions. Exceptions are the commercially applied aspartase, which is an ammonia lyase that is utilized for the synthesis of L-aspartic acid from fumaric acid, and phenylalanine lyase. The latter is an example of a commercial application of an ammonia lyase in a process for the production of L-phenylalanine and more importantly L-phenylalanine derivatives. 

L-aspartic acid ammonia lyase, or aspartase (E.C. 4.3.1.1) is used on a commercial scale by Kyowa Hakko, Mitsubishi, Tanabe and DSM to produce L-aspartic acid, which is used as a building block for the sweetener Aspartame, as a general acidulant and as a chiral building block for synthesis of active ingrediants[1]. The reaction is performed with enzyme preparations from E. coli, Brevibacterium jlavum or other coryneform bacteria either as permeabilized whole cells or as isolated, immobilized enzymes. The process is carried out under an excess of ammonia to drive the reaction equilibrium from fumaric acid (1) in the direction of L-aspartic acid (l-2) (see Scheme 12.6-1) and results in a product of excellent quality (over 99.9% e.e.) at a yield of practically 100%. The process is carried out on a multi-thousand ton scale by the diverse producers of L-aspartic acid. Site directed mutagenesis of aspartase from E. coli by introduction of a Cys430Trp mutation has resulted in significant activation and stabilization of the enzyme P1. 

Aspartic acid, alanine, phenylalanine, and lysine were manufactured by enzymatic route. Immobilized E. coli cells expressing aspartate or the immobilized enzyme has been used in the commercial production of aspartic acid from ammonia and fumaric acid. Chibata and coworkers also produced alanine by microbial Pseudomonas dacunhae) L-aspartate P-decarboxylase with aspartate as the starting material. Phenyl alanine was manufactured from fw s-cinnamic acid and ammonia by the enzymatic route by phenyl alanine ammonia lyase as catalyst or from phenyl pyruvate and aspartic acid using transaminase. 

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