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Volume 6, Issue 8 (Suppl) J Biotechnol Biomater
ISSN: 2155-952X JBTBM, an open access journal Bio America 2016
November 28-30, 2016
November 28-30, 2016 San Francisco, USA
13th Biotechnology Congress
Birhanu Mekuaninte Kinfu et al., J Biotechnol Biomater 2016, 6:8(Suppl)
Biocatalytic asymmetric phosphorylation catalyzed by recombinant glycerate-2-kinase
Birhanu Mekuaninte Kinfu1 , Norman Hardt2, Jennifer Chow1, Bernhard Schoenenberger2, Wolfgang R Streit1, Markus Obkircher2 and Roland Wohlgemuth2
1University of Hamburg, Germany
2Merck Group, Switzerland
D-glycerate-2-phosphate is an important substrate and crucial metabolite of central carbonmetabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis
and pentose phosphate pathway, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, methane metabolism, biosynthesis of plant
secondary metabolites, phenylpropanoids, terpenoids and steroids, alkaloids derived from shikimate pathway, antibiotics, amino
acids. Therefore an efficient, robust and scalable route for the preparation of enantiopure D-glycerate-2-phosphate is needed. A
straightforward one-step biocatalytic phosphorylation of glyceric acid catalyzed by a recombinant glycerate 2-kinase heterologously
expressed as maltose binding protein fusion has been investigated using racemic and the enantiopure D- and L-glycerate as substrate.
The reaction was coupled with the phosphoenolpyruvate/pyruvate-kinase-system for ATP-regeneration and monitored by 31P-NMR
spectroscopy. This phosphorylation reaction using recombinant glycerate 2-kinase is highly enantio-selective and sustainable, as it
yields enantiomerically pure D-glycerate-2-phosphate in less reaction steps and with higher purity than chemical routes.
Biography
Birhanu Mekuaninte Kinfu has completed his BSc at the University of Gondar in Applied Biology and his MSc in Biotechnology at Addis Ababa University. He has
worked as University Lecturer for 2 years. Winning the prestigious DAAD Research Grant Award (German academic exchange service) under its ‘young academics
and scientists’ program, he is currently pursuing PhD at Microbiology and Biotechnology Department, the University of Hamburg, Germany. His main work focuses
on biocatalytic phosphorylation of selected metabolites, metagenomics and in vitro protein expression systems.