Vanillin production by recombinant strains of Escherichia coli

Abstract

Vanillin production from ferulate was studied using different recombinant strains of Escherichia coli. To prevent the occurrence of aerobic conditions and then possible product oxidation, tests were performed in Erlenmeyer flasks under mild mixing (150 rpm). Among other transformants, E. coli JM109(pBB1) appeared to be the best vanillin producer, being able to convert no less than 95% of starting ferulate to the product within 1h. This yield decreased down to 72% after 72h, likely because of a non-specific oxidase activity responsible for vanillin oxidation to vanillate.

Vanillin production using metabolically engineered Escherichia coli under non-growing conditions

“…It has been demonstrated [25] that the concerted expression of fcs and ech genes from Pseudomonas in E. coli confers the ability to convert ferulic acid to vanillin to the recombinant strain. We previously cloned the ferulic-catabolic genes from strain BF13 on a plasmid harbouring the broad-host-range RK2 minireplicon, so that they could be introduced and maintained both in E. coli and Pseudomonas cells [26]. Herein, the possibility of cloning these genes on a multicopy vector was explored and the effect of copy number amplification on vanillin production from ferulic acid was evaluated.…”

Microbial production of biovanillin

“…Novablu, E. coli SureII, E. coli XL10 Gold), allowed selecting the second one as the best producer, being able to ensure the most interesting combination of vanillin yield and production kinetics as well as product stability (20). Nevertheless, this transformant showed in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium a duplication time more than twice (24) that of the wild type (0.5 h) under optimal growth conditions in glucose (13,63).…”