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Conversion of levulinic acid to 2-butanone by acetoacetate decarboxylase from Clostridium acetobutylicum

  • Bioenergy and biofuels
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Abstract

In this study, a novel system for synthesis of 2-butanone from levulinic acid (γ-keto-acid) via an enzymatic reaction was developed. Acetoacetate decarboxylase (AADC; E.C. 4.1.1.4) from Clostridium acetobutylicum was selected as a biocatalyst for decarboxylation of levulinic acid. The purified recombinant AADC from Escherichia coli successfully converted levulinic acid to 2-butanone with a conversion yield of 8.4–90.3 % depending on the amount of AADC under optimum conditions (30 °C and pH 5.0) despite that acetoacetate, a β-keto-acid, is a natural substrate of AADC. In order to improve the catalytic efficiency, an AADC-mediator system was tested using methyl viologen, methylene blue, azure B, zinc ion, and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) as mediators. Among them, methyl viologen showed the best performance, increasing the conversion yield up to 6.7-fold in comparison to that without methyl viologen. The results in this study are significant in the development of a renewable method for the synthesis of 2-butanone from biomass-derived chemical, levulinic acid, through enzymatic decarboxylation.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Korean Ministry of Knowledge and Economy (2009301009001B) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2009-C1AAA001-0093286). We thank Prof. Young Je Yoo and Mr. Hoe Suk Lee at Seoul National University for their help in molecular docking simulation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, 136-791, South Korea

    Kyoungseon Min, Seil Kim, Taewoo Yum, Yunje Kim & Youngsoon Um

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, South Korea

    Byoung-In Sang

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  1. Kyoungseon Min
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  2. Seil Kim
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  3. Taewoo Yum
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  4. Yunje Kim
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  5. Byoung-In Sang
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  6. Youngsoon Um
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Correspondence to Byoung-In Sang or Youngsoon Um.

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Min, K., Kim, S., Yum, T. et al. Conversion of levulinic acid to 2-butanone by acetoacetate decarboxylase from Clostridium acetobutylicum . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 5627–5634 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4879-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4879-9

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