PROCESS FOR PRODUCING L-PHENYLALANINE

Abstract: A process for producing L-phenylalanine is carried out by (1) culturing a microorganism belonging to the genus Citrobacter, Erwinia, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Microbacter­ ium, Salmonella, Bacillius, Corynebacterium or Flavobacter­ ium having the ability to convert phenylpyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of an amino group donor, in a culture medium containing phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor or causing cells of the microorganism or product of treatment thereof to react on phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor in an aqueous solution; or by (2) culturing a microorganism belonging to the genus Serratia, Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Erwi­ nia, Proteus, Citrobacter, Paracoccus, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Brevibacterium, Corynebacterium, Flavobacterium, Klebsiel­ la, Kluyvera or Micrococcus having the ability to convert phenypyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of fumaric acid and ammonium ion or urea, in a culture medium containing phenylpyruvic acid, fumaric acid and ammonium ion or urea or causing cells of said microorgan­ ism or product of treatment thereof to react on phenylpyr­ uvic acid, fumaric acid and ammonium ion or urea in an aqueous solution; forming L-phenylalanine in the resultant culture broth or aqueous solution; and recovering L-­ phenylalanine therefrom.

Description: The present invention relates to a process for producing L-phenylalanine. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for producing L-phenylalanine which comprises culturing a microorganism belonging to the genus Citrobacter , Erwinia , Enterobacter , Klebsiella , Microbacterium , Salmonella , or Flavobacterium having the ability to convert phenylpyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of an amino group donor, in a culture medium containing phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor or alternatively, causing cells of the microorganism or product of treatment thereof to react on phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor in an aqueous solution; forming L-phenylalanine in the resultant culture broth or aqueous solution;and recovering L-phenylalanine therefrom. L-phenylalanine is an amino acid which is useful as a raw material for a sweetening agent. It is an object or the present invention to provide an improved process for the production of this amino acid on an industrial scale at low cost. Heretofore, as the enzymatic processes for producing L-phenylalanine using phenylpyruvic acid as a susbstrate, the processes which cause cells of microorganisms belonging to the species Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Proteus vulgaris (Amino Acids, Vol. 2, page 18, 1960), the genus Alcaligenes , Pseudomonas , Aerobacter , Escherichia , Achromobacter , Sarcina , Kluyvera, or Micrococcus (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 10672/62), the species Serratia marcescens (Amino Acids, Vol. 5, page 61, 1962), or the genus Aspergillus , Absidia , Cheatomium , Fusarium , Penicillium , Mucor , Monascus or Rhizopus (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 20556/70) to react on phenylpyruvic acid and amino acids as amino group donors; and the processes which cause phenylpyruvic acid and amino group donors [such as nylon cyclic oligomer (Japanese Published Examiner Patent Application No. 17991/69), nylon 6 hydrolyzate (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 17992/69) and lactam (Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. 17990/69)] to react on cells of a microorganism of the genus Corynebacterium have been known. Although the processes exemplified above result in improved yields of L-phenylalanine, the production yields of such processes, nevertheless, are comparatively low from a commercial application standpoint. Thus, a need exists for a process for producing L-phenylalanine in higher yields at low cost. To this end, it has now been found that L-phenylalanine is produced in higher yields by using the process of this invention. In accordance with the present invention, L-phenylalanine is produced by culturing a microorganism belonging to the genus Citrobacter , Erwinia , Enterobacter , Klebsiella , Microbacterium , Salmonella , or Flavobacterium having the ability to convert phenylpyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of an amino group donor, in a culture medium containing phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor or alternatively, causing cells of the microorganism or product of treatment thereof to react on phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor in an aqueous solution; forming L-phenylalanine in the resultant culture broth or aqueous solution and recovering L-phenylalanine therefrom. The microorganism utilized in the present invention is a microorganism belonging to the genus Citrobacter , Erwinia , Enterobacter , Klebsiella , Microbacterium , Salmonella , or Flavobacterium, which has the ability to convert phenylpyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of an amino group donor. The microorganism may be a wild-type strain, a mutant strain or a recombinant strain derived by the technology of cell fusion, the technology of gene manipulation or other genetic procedures. Examples of the preferred microorganism are Citrobacter freundii ATCC 6750, Erwinia herbicola ATCC 21434, Enterobacter cloacae ATCC 13047, Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 8724, Microbacterium ammoniaphilum ATCC 15354, Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 19585, and Flavobacterium suaveolens ATCC 958. These ATCC strains are deposited with the American Type Culture Collection, U.S.A. and are available to the public therefrom. As the medium in which the microorganisms as described above are cultured to produce L-phenylalanine, either a natural medium or synthetic a medium may be employed so long as it contains carbon sources, nitrogen sources, inorganic salts, etc. As the carbon source, carbohydrates such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, mannose, starch, starch hydrolyzate, molasses and fruit juices, sugar alcohols such as glycerol, sorbitol and mannitol, organic acids such as acetic acid, formic acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, citric acid and gluconic acid, alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and propanol may be used. As the nitrogen source, ammonia or inorganic and organic ammonium salts such as ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate, ammonium acetate and ammonium phosphate, nitrogen-containing compounds such as urea, amines, peptone, meat extract, yeast extract, corn steep liquor, caseine hydrolyzate, soybean cake hydrolyzate, various fermented cells and digested products thereof may be used. As the inorganic material, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, magnesium phosphate, magnesium sulfate, sodium chloride, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate and calcium carbonate may be used. When the microorganism to be used in the present invention requires specific nutrients for its growth, it is, of course, also necessary to add appropriate amounts of these substances to the medium. In some cases, such nutrients may be supplied by natural materials mentioned above as examples of the nitrogen source. Phenylpyruvic acid and the amino group donor are added to the aforementioned culture medium either from the beginning of culturing or during the course of the culturing. As the amino group donor, L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid, L-leucine, L-lysine, D or L-methionine, glycine, L-arginine, L-ornithine and D or L-alanine may be used. They are used in the form of final products manufactured by the fermentation method or chemical synthesis method, crude products obtained during the course of such manufacture, amino acid fermentation broths produced by the fermentation method and the enzyme method, and reaction solutions. Phenylpyruvic acid is used in the form of salts such as ammonium salt, sodium salt, potassium salt or calcium salt. Ammonium ion is supplied in the form of a salt such as ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium chloride, ammonium acetate, ammonium formate, ammonium fumarate, or ammonium malate, or in the form of ammonia water or ammonia gas. Culturing is carried out by aeration-agitation at a pH of from 3 to 10, preferably 6 to 9, and at a temperature of from 20 to 60°C, preferably 25 to 40°C for 1 to 5 days. As the result, L-phenylalanine is formed in the culture broth. The enzymatic process for producing L-phenylalanine using cells of the microorganisms mentioned above or the product of treatment thereof is explained hereinafter. As regards the composition of the culture medium and the culture conditions in case of obtaining the cells of the miroorganism, the same composition and condition as described above are used. The microbial cells thus obtained are used without any further treatment for the reaction. Optionally the cells are subjected to various treatments and the products of such treatments may be used for the reaction. As the microbial cells, cells themselves or culture broth containing cells may be used. As the product of treatment of cells, the product of mechanical attrition of cells, the product of treatment with ultrasonic waves, the product of lyophilization, the product of treatment with solvent, the product of treatment with enzyme, the product of desiccation, the product of treatment with surfactant, the protein fraction of cells and the immobilization products of cells and products of cell treatment may be used. The reaction is effected by causing the cells obtained as described above or the product of their treatment to react upon phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor. As regards the amino group donor, the same donor as mentioned above may be used. For the purpose of the reaction, the concentration of phenylpyruvic acid is in the range of 0.01 to 1 M, and that of amino group donor in the range of 0.01 to 2 M. These raw materials are supplied all at once or intermittently. The reaction is carried out at a pH of from 4 to 10, preferably 6 to 9, and at a temperature of from 10 to 70°C, preferably 25 to 45°C, for 1 to 48 hours. As the result, L-phenylalanine is formed in the aqueous solution. Recovering of L-phenylalanine from the culture broth or the aqueous solution is effected by means of ion-exchange resin or active carbon adsorption. Practice of specific embodiments of the invention is illustrated by the following representative examples. Example 1 One loop of each of the microorganisms shown in Table 1 was inoculated into a test tube containing 10 ml of a culture medium (pH 7.0) comprising 0.5% glucose, 0.3% yeast extract, 1% meat extract, 1% peptone and 0.3% sodium chloride. Culturing was carried out at 28°C for 18 hours, with shaking (210 rpm). After completion of the culturing, the test tube was centrifuged to collect cells, washed twice by centrifugation with 10 ml each of an aqueous 0.85% sodium chloride solution. Then, 1.5 ml of a reaction solution of the following composition was poured to the test tube and the reaction was carried out for 18 hours under the same conditions as described above. As the result, L-phenylalanine was formed in a concentration shown in Table 1. The composition of the reaction solution is as follows: 50 mM sodium β-phenylpyruvate, 200 µM pyridoxal phosphate, 100 mM Tris buffer (pH 7.4), and 100 mM L-sodium glutamate or 100 mM L-sodium aspartate as an amino group donor. Example 2 The same procedure as described in Example 1 was repeated except that microorganisms shown in Table 2 were used. The results are shown in Table 2. Example 3 Citrobacter freundii ATCC 6750 was used as a seed strain. One loop of cells of the microorganism was inoculated into 5 ml of a fermentation medium of the following composition in a test tube. Culturing was carried out at 28°C for 5 hours with shaking (210 rpm). Then, 0.5 ml of an aqueous sodium phenylpyruvate solution in a concentration of 50 mg/ml (passed through a membrane filter for removal of microbial cells) was added to the culture broth and culturing was continued for 24 hours in total. After completion of the culturing, 3.8 mg/ml L-phenylalanine was accumulated in the supernatant. As a control, when the same procedure was conducted in the absence of phenylpyruvic acid, not more than 0.1 mg/ml L-phenylalanine was accumulated in the supernatant. Composition of fermentation medium: 5% glucose, 0.5% ammonium sulfate, 0.8% sodium glutamate, 0.05% KH₂PO₄, 0.05% K₂HPO₄. 0.025% MgSO₄·7H₂O, 0.05% corn steep liquor and 2% CaCO₃ (pH 7.0, neutralized with ammonia water).

Claims: A process for producing L-phenylalanine which comprises (a) culturing in a culture medium containing phenylpyruvic acid and an amino group donor selected from L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid, L-leucine, L-lysine, D- or L-methionine, glycine, L-arginine, L-ornithine, and D- or L-alanine a microorganism belonging to the genus Citrobacter , Erwinia , Enterobacter , Klebsiella , Microbacterium , Salmonella , or Flavobacterium , said microorganism having the ability to convert phenylpyruvic acid into L-phenylalanine in the presence of an amino group donor, or alternatively reacting phenylpyruvic acid and said amino group donor in an aqueous solution with cells of said microorganism, with a product thereof obtainable by mechanical attrition, treatment with ultrasonic waves, lyophilization, treatment with a solvent, treatment with an enzyme, desiccation, treatment with a surfactant, with a protein fraction of said cells, or with immobilization products of said cells; (b) forming L-phenylalanine in said culture broth or aqueous solution; and (c) recovering L-phenylalanine therefrom. The process according to claim 1, wherein the microorganism belongs to the species Citrobacter freundii , Erwinia herbicola , Enterobacter cloacae , Klebsiella oxytoca , Microbacterium ammoniaphilum , Salmonella typhimurium , or Flavobacterium suaveolens . The process according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the microorganism is Citrobacter freundii ATCC 6750, Erwinia herbicola ATCC 21434, Enterobacter cloacae ATCC 13047, Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 8724, Microbacterium ammoniaphilum ATCC 15354, Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 19585, or Flavobacterium suaveolens ATCC 958. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the culturing in the culture medium is carried out at a pH of from 3 to 10 at a temperature of 20 to 60°C for 1 to 5 days. The process according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the reaction is carried out in the aqueous solution at a pH of from 4 to 10 at a temperature of 10 to 70°C for 1 to 48 hours.

Inventors: ANAZAWA, HIDEHARU, ARAKI, KAZUMI, ISHINO, SHUICHI, ITO, YUKIYOSHI, KAMIMORI, SHIGERU, OZEKI, TOSHITSUGU
Applicants: KYOWA HAKKO KOGYO CO., LTD.
Application year: 1985
Main classification: C12P13
IPC codes: C12P13