Enzymatic synthesis of nucleosides by nucleoside phosphorylase co-expressed in Escherichia coli

Nucleoside phosphorylase is an important enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of nucleosides. In this study, purine nucleoside phosphorylase and pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase were co-expressed in Escherichia coli and the intact cells were used as a catalyst for the biosynthesis of nucleosides. For protein induction, lactose was used in place of isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). When the concentration of lactose was above 0.5 mmol/L, the ability to induce protein expression was similar to that of IPTG. We determined that the reaction conditions of four bacterial strains co-expressing these genes (TUD, TAD, DUD, and DAD) were similar for the biosyntheses of 2,6-diaminopurine nucleoside and 2,6-diaminopurine deoxynucleoside. When the substrate concentration was 30 mmol/L and 0.5% of the recombinant bacterial cell volume was used as the catalyst (pH 7.5), a greater than 90% conversion yield was reached after a 2-h incubation at 50 °C. In addition, several other nucleosides and nucleoside derivatives were efficiently synthesized using bacterial strains co-expressing these recombinant enzymes

Induction of nucleoside phosphorylase in Enterobacter aerogenes and enzymatic synthesis of adenine arabinoside*

Nucleoside phosphorylases (NPases) were found to be induced in Enterobacter aerogenes DGO-04, and cytidine and cytidine 5′-monophosphate (CMP) were the best inducers. Five mmol/L to fifteen mmol/L cytidine or CMP could distinctly increase the activities of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNPase), uridine phosphorylase (UPase) and thymidine phosphorylase (TPase) when they were added into medium from 0 to 8 h. In the process of enzymatic synthesis of adenine arabinoside from adenine and uracil arabinoside with wet cells of Enterobacter aerogenes DGO-04 induced by cytidine or CMP, the reaction time could be shortened from 36 to 6 h. After enzymatic reaction the activity of NPase in the cells induced remained higher than that in the cells uninduced