Synthesis of nylon 6,5 from biologically prepared 5AVA by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli

Young Hoon Oha, Si Jae Parkb, Bong Keun Songa, Jonggeon Jegala, Seung Hwan Leea, Sang Yup Leec

aKorea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Republic of Korea

bDepartment of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Myongji University, Republic of Korea

cMetabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, Department

of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Program), KAIST, Republic of

Korea

*Correspondence should be addressed to Sang Yup Lee (leesy@kaist.ac.kr) and Seung

Hwan Lee (hwanlee@krict.re.kr).

Production of bio-based polymers has been attracting attentions as fossil fuel depletion and environmental pollution are accelerated. 5-aminovalerate (5AVA) is one of the recently suggested building blocks, which can be prepared biologically, for synthesis of bio-polyamides. 5AVA is a metabolite of the so-called aminovalerate pathway of L- lysine catabolism in Pseudomonas putida. In the aminovalerate pathway, L-lysine is converted to 5AVA via 5-aminovaleramide by lysine 2-monooxygenase and delta- aminovaleramidase encoded by the davB and davA genes, respectively.

In this study, we have developed a hybrid process composed of biological production of 5AVA and chemical synthesis of nylon 6,5. A recombinant Escherichia coli strain expressing P. putida davAB genes was employed in large-scale production of 5AVA by fed-batch fermentation. A cyclization reaction was conducted to convert the biologically prepared 5AVA into of δ-valerolactam. Finally, nylon 6,5 could be synthesized by bulk polymerization of δ-valerolactam and ε-caprolactam.

[This work was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes (Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries) from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program (10047910, Production of biobased cadaverine and polymerization of Bio-polyamide 510) funded By the Ministry of Trade, industry & Energy(MI, Korea).]