Whole cells advantages

Biotransformations are carried out by either whole cells (microbial, plant, or animal) or by isolated enzymes. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. In general, multistep transformations, such as hydroxylations of steroids, or the synthesis of amino acids, riboflavin, vitamins, and alkaloids that require the presence of several enzymes and cofactors are carried out by whole cells. Simple one- or two-step transformations, on the other hand, are usually carried out by isolated enzymes. Compared to fermentations, enzymatic reactions have a number of advantages including simple instmmentation reduced side reactions, easy control, and product isolation. 

Almost all types of cell can be used to convert an added compound into another compound, involving many forms of enzymatic reaction including dehydration, oxidation, hydroxyla-tion, animation, isomerisation, etc. These types of conversion have advantages over chemical processes in that the reaction can be very specific, and produced at moderate temperatures. Examples of transformations using enzymes include the production of steroids, conversion of antibiotics and prostaglandins. Industrial transformation requires the production of large quantities of enzyme, but the half-life of enzymes can be improved by immobilisation and extraction simplified by the use of whole cells. 

Since 1978, several papers have examined the potential of using immobilised cells in fuel production. Microbial cells are used advantageously for industrial purposes, such as Escherichia coli for the continuous production of L-aspartic acid from ammonium fur-marate.5,6 Enzymes from microorganisms are classified as extracellular and intracellular. If whole microbial cells can be immobilised directly, procedures for extraction and purification can be omitted and the loss of intracellular enzyme activity can be kept to a minimum. Whole cells are used as a solid catalyst when they are immobilised onto a solid support. 

As noted with the chemotaxonomic studies, the limited resolving power and mass accuracy of MALDI-TOF complicates identification of unknown proteins. If the greatly improved resolving power and accuracy of MALDI-FTMS can be used to monitor overexpressed proteins, it could have significant advantages. Figure 13.12 is a MALDI-FTMS spectrum of E. coli whole cells that have been genetically altered to produce the soluble core domain mammalian cytochrome b5 protein, which consists of 98 amino acids. 

Advantages of Whole-Cell Process Compared with the Isolated... 

The reduction of several ketones, which were transformed by the wild-type lyophilized cells of Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541 with moderate stereoselectivity, was reinvestigated employing lyophilized cells of Escherichia coli containing the overexpressed alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH- A ) from Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541. The recombinant whole-cell biocatalyst significantly increased the activity and enantioselectivity [41]. For example, the enantiomeric excess of (R)-2-chloro-l-phenylethanol increased from 43 to >99%. This study clearly demonstrated the advantages of the recombinant whole cell biocatalysts over the wild-type whole cells. 

In this section, the advantages of the use of whole cells over the use of isolated enzymes in biotransformation processes are presented. 

In the processes that require regeneration of cofactors such as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAD(P)H) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), whole-cell biotransformations are more advantageous than enzymatic systems [12,15]. Whole cells also have a competitive edge over the isolated enzymes in complex conversions involving multiple enzymatic reactions [14]. 

One advantage of whole-cell biotransformation that has not been addressed adequately in this chapter is the ability to modify compounds with complex structure, such as natural products. Natural products are ideal substrates for biotransformation reactions since they are synthesized in a series of enzymatic reactions by the whole cells. The modification of natural products by biotransformation has been reviewed recently by Azerad [ 13] and a majority of the modifications were carried out by whole-cell biotransformations. Additional examples of modification of natural products by whole-cell biotransformations can also be found in the review article by Patel [2]. Natural products are an important source of new drugs and new drug leads [53]. The use of biotransformation, especially whole-cell biotransformation, in modification of natural products for lead optimization and generating libraries of derivatives for S AR and screening studies is important for the pharmaceutical industry. 

As a perspective to this review, we conclude with recent developments in the use of whole cells to control the growth of nanopartides. Such approaches should allow one to take advantage of the whole cellular machinery and, combined with genetic engineering, appear very promising for the development of a green nanochemistry. 

The second general approach is to use whole cells that contain the enzyme or enzymes used in the biocatalytic process. The use of whole cells has the added advantage that coenzyme-dependent enzymes can be used because it is possible to regenerate the relevant coenzyme, through metabolism of the whole cells. This, of course, requires that the whole cells are not only physically intact but also meta-bolically active. Since coenzymes are often involved in building new molecules, industrial biocatalysis typically uses whole-cell systems. 

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