Enzymatic process optimization for the in vitro production of isoprene from mevalonate

Background As an important bulk chemical for synthetic rubber, isoprene can be biosynthesized by robust microbes. But rational engineering and optimization are often demanded to make the in vivo process feasible due to the complexities of cellular metabolism. Alternative synthetic biochemistry strategies are in fast development to produce isoprene or isoprenoids in vitro. Results This study set up an in vitro enzyme synthetic chemistry process using 5 enzymes in the lower mevalonate pathway to produce isoprene from mevalonate. We found the level and ratio of individual enzymes would significantly affect the efficiency of the whole system. The optimized process using 10 balanced enzyme unites (5.0 µM of MVK, PMK, MVD; 10.0 µM of IDI, 80.0 µM of ISPS) could produce 6323.5 µmol/L/h (430 mg/L/h) isoprene in a 2 ml in vitro system. In a scale up process (50 ml) only using 1 balanced enzyme unit (0.5 µM of MVK, PMK, MVD; 1.0 µM of IDI, 8.0 µM of ISPS), the system could produce 302 mg/L isoprene in 40 h, which showed higher production rate and longer reaction phase with comparison of the in vivo control. Conclusions By optimizing the enzyme levels of lower MVA pathway, synthetic biochemistry methods could be set up for the enzymatic production of isoprene or isoprenoids from mevalonate.