L-tyrosine production by recombinant Escherichia coli: fermentation optimization and recovery.

L-tyrosine (L-tyr) overproducing Escherichia coli strain derived from an L-phenylalanine (L-phe) overproducing strain is characterized in 10 L and 200 L scale fermentations. Deletion of the chromosomal region encoding for the pheA gene, chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydratase, its leader peptide (pheL) and its associated promoter resulted in significant increase in L-tyr production (Olson et al., 2007. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 74(5):1031-1040). Further increase in titer was achieved by overexpressing tyrA, encoding chorismate mutase/prephenate dehydrogenase, from a strong non-native trc promoter (Olson et al., 2007. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 74(5):1031-1040). Fermentation optimization studies include media component selection; glucose feed optimization, antifoam agent selection, and understanding fermentation parameters affecting foaming. Generational stability of the strain was evaluated along with rate, titer, and yield of tyrosine formation from glucose. L-tyr titer of 55 g/L in 48 h was demonstrated in 200 L batches, is the highest titer published till date. We have also evaluated two primary separations schemes to isolate and purify L-tyr from the fermentation broth. Physical separation of L-tyr crystals from biomass using a decanter type centrifuge, based on the density difference between the solids, is compared and contrasted with a strategy where L-tyr is first dissolved at pH 11.5 and then acid precipitated from clarified supernatants following removal of biomass using membrane filtration. L-tyr product purity of 98% with yields ranging from 90% to 95% is demonstrated.

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