Production of trans-cinnamic acid by whole-cell bioconversion from l-phenylalanine in engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum

BACKGROUND: trans-cinnamic acid (t-CA) is a phenylpropanoid with a broad spectrum of biological activities including antioxidant and antibacterial activities, and it also has high potential in food and cosmetic applications. Although significant progress has been made in the production of t-CA using microorganisms, its relatively low product titers still need to be improved. In this study, we engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum as a whole-cell catalyst for the bioconversion of l-phenylalanine (l-Phe) into t-CA and developed a repeated bioconversion process. RESULTS: An expression module based on a phenylalanine ammonia lyase-encoding gene from Streptomyces maritimus (SmPAL), which mediates the conversion of l-Phe into t-CA, was constructed in C. glutamicum. Using the strong promoter P(H36) and ribosome binding site (RBS) (in front of gene 10 of the T7 phage), and a high-copy number plasmid, SmPAL could be expressed to levels as high as 39.1% of the total proteins in C. glutamicum. Next, to improve t-CA production at an industrial scale, reaction conditions including temperature and pH were optimized; t-CA production reached up to 6.7 mM/h in a bioreactor under optimal conditions (50 °C and pH 8.5, using NaOH as base solution). Finally, a recycling system was developed by coupling membrane filtration with the bioreactor, and the engineered C. glutamicum successfully produced 13.7 mM of t-CA (24.3 g) from 18.2 mM of l-Phe (36 g) and thus with a yield of 75% (0.75 mol/mol) through repetitive supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a highly efficient bioconversion process using C. glutamicum as a biocatalyst and a micromembrane-based cell recycling system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on t-CA production in C. glutamicum, and this robust platform will contribute to the development of an industrially relevant platform for the production of t-CA using microorganisms. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01631-1.