High-efficiency and low-cost production of cadaverine from a permeabilized-cell bioconversion by a Lysine-induced engineered Escherichia coli

Cadaverine is the monomer of bio-based nylons polyamide 5.4, 5.6 and 5.10. In this study, a litre-scale integrated strategy was developed for high-efficiency and low-cost production of cadaverine using an engineered Escherichia coli. Firstly, the engineered strain BL21-P-cad-CadA induced by cheap L-lysine-HCl instead of IPTG was constructed. Then the permeabilized cells were served as the biocatalyst for the production of cadaverine, because the enhanced permeability facilitated the mass transfer of the substrate and the release of products. After the replacement of industrial materials and the solution of the scale-up permeabilization process, cadaverine concentration reached 205 g/L with the yield of 92.1% after 20 h in a 2 L bioconversion system, achieving the level of industrial production. Furthermore, the costs of industrial materials for 2 L integrated strategy ($2.78) was only 1/11 of the lab reagents ($30.88). Therefore, the proposed strategy is a promising candidate for the industrial process of cadaverine.