Abstract
Putrescine, a biogenic amine, is a highly valued compound in medicine, industry, and agriculture. In this study, we report a whole-cell biocatalytic method in Escherichia coli for the production of putrescine, using L-arginine as the substrate. L-arginine decarboxylase and agmatine ureohydrolase were co-expressed to produce putrescine from L-arginine. Ten plasmids with different copy numbers and ordering of genes were constructed to balance the expression of the two enzymes, and the best strain was pACYCDuet-speB-speA. The optimal concentration of L-arginine was determined to be 20 mM for this strain. The optimum pH of the biotransformation was 9.5, and the optimum temperature was 45 °C; under these conditions, the yield of putrescine was 98%. This whole-cell biocatalytic method appeared to have great potential for the production of putrescine.
Highlights
Putrescine, known as 1,4-butanediamine, is an aliphatic diamine with a very unpleasant smell and is one of the biogenic amines [1]
The biosynthetic pathway for putrescine is widely distributed in microorganisms
In Pathway I, L-arginine is converted by arginase into ornithine, by ornithine decarboxylase into putrescine
Summary
Putrescine, known as 1,4-butanediamine, is an aliphatic diamine with a very unpleasant smell and is one of the biogenic amines [1]. In 1889, it was first isolated from Vibrio cholera, and its common name was derived from its occurrence in rotten meat [2]. In both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, putrescine is an essential regulator, which affects cell growth, differentiation, proliferation, and various physiological processes [3,4]. Putrescine is an important metabolite of the human intestinal flora, which is crucial to their life processes [5]. Treating plants with putrescine positively affects their growth, productivity, and stress tolerance [6]. Putrescine can enhance salt-tolerance and extend the shelf life of vegetable crops [7,8]. Putrescine is a co-monomer with adipic acid, to prepare the high-quality industrial plastic nylon 46, which has excellent solvent resistance and mechanical properties [9,10,11]
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