Efficient Production of (R)-o-Chloromandelic Acid by Recombinant Escherichia coli Cells Harboring Nitrilase from Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315

A solvent engineering approach and an extended fed-batch reaction mode were introduced to increase the activity and enantioselectivity and alleviate the substrate inhibition of nitrilase BCJ2315 from Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 toward o-chloromandelonitrile. Among the seven water-miscible organic solvents tested, ethanol (30%, v/v) demonstrated the highest reaction conversion (55.7%) and enantioselectivity (enantiomeric excess, 98.2% cc) compared with those of the control [which did not contain any organic solvent (13% and 89.2%, respectively)] and was thus chosen as the suitable cosolvent. In the extended fed-batch reaction mode, o-chloromandelonitrile (solubilized in ethanol, S M) was continuously fed into the reaction mixture containing ethanol as cosolvent (20%, v/v) to ensure an optimal reaction rate by adjusting the feeding rate and simultaneously increasing the enantioselectivity due to the increased concentration of ethanol. Finally, a maximum of 415 mM of product was produced with an enantiomeric excess value of 97.6% ee. The hydrolysis process was easily scaled up to 2 L, demonstrating that the described biocatalytic process was rationally designed and could be applied further on an industrial scale.