Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Amino Acid Biosynthesis - Pathways, Regulation AndMetabolic Engineering
Amino Acid Biosynthesis - Pathways, Regulation AndMetabolic Engineering
Microbiology Monographs
Series Editor: Alexander Steinbchel
Microbiology Monographs
Volumes published in the series
Inclusions in Prokaryotes
Jessup M. Shively (Editor)
Volume 1 (2006)
Complex Intracellular Structures in Prokaryotes
Jessup M. Shively (Editor)
Volume 2 (2006)
Magnetoreception and Magnetosomes in Bacteria
Dirk Schler (Editor)
Volume 3 (2007)
Predatory Prokaryotes Biology, Ecology and Evolution
Edouard Jurkevitch (Editor)
Volume 4 (2007)
123
Volume Editor:
Prof. Dr. Volker F. Wendisch
Institute of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology
Westfalian Wilhelms University Mnster
Corrensstr. 3
48149 Mnster
Germany
e-mail: wendisch@uni-muenster.de
Series Editor:
Professor Dr. Alexander Steinbchel
Institut fr Molekulare Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie
Westflische Wilhelms-Universitt
Corrensstrae 3
48149 Mnster
Germany
e-mail: steinbu@uni-muenster.de
ISSN 1862-5576
ISBN 978-3-540-48595-7 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York
DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-48596-4
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material
is concerned, specically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microlm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of
this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law
of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from
Springer. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law.
Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media
springer.com
c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence
of a specic statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations
and therefore free for general use.
Editor: Dr. Christina Eckey, Heidelberg, Germany
Desk Editor: Dr. Jutta Lindenborn, Heidelberg, Germany
Cover Design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany
Typesetting and Production: LE-TEX Jelonek, Schmidt & Vckler GbR, Leipzig, Germany
Printed on acid-free paper SPIN 11768746 149/3100 YL 5 4 3 2 1 0
Preface
Amino acids are simple organic compounds containing at least one amino
and one carboxylic function. The L--amino acids and glycine can be considered building blocks of life since they constitute the biopolymers proteins
in all organisms, but also D-isomers, e.g. D-alanine in bacterial cell walls,
and - and -amino acids like -alanine as component of vitamin B5 and
-aminobutyrate as neurotransmitter occur in nature. While mature proteins
contain many different amino acids due to post-translational modications,
only 22 proteinogenic L--amino acids are genetically encoded, i.e. they are
used for protein biosynthesis as amino acyl-tRNAs by the ribosome. Since
the deciphering of the genetic code for 20 amino acids about 40 years ago,
L-selenocysteine (Chambers et al. 1986; Zinoni et al. 1986) and L-pyrrolysine
(Hao et al. 2002; Srinivasan et al. 2002) were discovered as the 21st and 22nd
genetically encoded amino acids. The co-translational insertion of selenocysteine and pyrrolysine into nascent proteins requires unique cis- and transacting factors to recode UGA and UAG stop codons, respectively, as codons for
selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, respectively. The existence of further widely
distributed and genetically encoded amino acids is unlikely as suggested in
a recent bioinformatic analysis of tRNAs encoded in about 150 bacterial and archaeal genomes (Lobanov et al. 2006). The essential L-amino acids isoleucine,
leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine
cannot be synthesized by humans, but have to supplied in the diet, and infants
require arginine and histidine in addition. Microorganisms differ considerably
in their capabilities to synthesize amino acids de novo, for example Leuconostoc mesenteroides only grows, when 16 amino acids are supplied, while bacteria
like Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Corynebacterium glutamicum are able
to synthesize all amino acids de novo from ammonium.
This monograph deals with amino acid biosynthetic pathways and their
genetic and biochemical regulation on one hand and with the use and metabolic
engineering of microorganisms for biotechnological production of amino acids
on the other. The current knowledge of amino acid metabolic pathways and
transport systems specic for uptake or export of amino acids is covered.
The characterization of the control mechanisms of amino acid biosynthesis
have revealed fundamental insights into genetic and biochemical regulation.
Feedback inhibition of biosynthetic enzymes by metabolic end-products (e.g.
VI
Preface
Volker F. Wendisch
Alexander Steinbchel
Preface
VII
References
Aida K, Chibata I, Nakayama K, Takinami K, Yamada H (1986) Biotechnology of Amino
Acid Production. Progress in Industrial Microbiology. Kodansha Ltd, Tokyo and Elsevier,
AmsterdamOxfordNew YorkTokyo
Chambers I, Frampton J, Goldfarb P, Affara N, McBain W, Harrison PR (1986) The structure
of the mouse glutathione peroxidase gene: the selenocysteine in the active site is encoded
by the termination codon, TGA. EMBO J 5:12211227
Eggeling L, Bott M (2005) Handbook of Corynebacterium glutamicum. CRC Press (Taylor
Francis Group), Boca Raton
Enei H, Yokozeki K, Akashi K (1989) Recent progress in microbial production of amino
acids. Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam
Hao B, Gong W, Ferguson TK, James CM, Krzycki JA, Chan MK (2002) A new UAG-encoded
residue in the structure of a methanogen methyltransferase. Science 296:14621466
Lobanov AV, Kryikov GV, Hateld DF, Gladyshev VN (2006) Is there a twenty third amino
acid in the genetic code? Trends Genet 22:357360
Srinivasan G, James CM, Krzycki JA (2002) Pyrrolysine encoded by UAG in Archaea: charging of a UAG-decoding specialized tRNA. Science 296:14591462
Sudarsan N, Wickiser JK, Nakamura S, Ebert MS, Breaker RR (2003) An mRNA structure in
bacteria that controls gene expression by binding lysine. Genes Dev 17:26882697
Yamada K, Kinoshita S, Tsunoda T, Aida K (1972) The microbial production of amino acid.
Kodansha Ltd, Tokyo
Zinoni F, Birkmann A, Stadtman TC, Bock A (1986) Nucleotide sequence and expression of the selenocysteine-containing polypeptide of formate dehydrogenase (formatehydrogen-lyase-linked) from Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:46504654
Contents
39
L-Threonine
M. Rieping T. Hermann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
93
Contents