Discovery and application of new bacterial strains for asymmetric synthesis of L-tert-butyl leucine in high enantioselectivity.

Discovery of new bacterial strains with fast identification in a miniaturized system was performed for the synthesis of optically active L-tert-butyl leucine. With tert-butyl leucine amide as nitrogen source, one bacterial strain with high conversion and high enantioselectivity was discovered among 120 isolated microorganisms from local soils and identified as Mycobacterium sp. JX009. Glucose and ammonium chloride were examined as the good carbon source and nitrogen source for the cells' growth separately. The cells grew better at 30 °C and at pH 7.5 with higher activity of 2,650 U/l in comparison with other conditions. Cells' stability was improved by immobilization on synthetic resin 0730 without pretreatment. Tert-butyl leucine amide (30 mM) was successfully hydrolyzed by immobilized cells and examined as the highest chemical concentration that cells could endure. After six reaction cycles, the immobilized cells retained 90% activity with production of L-tert-butyl leucine in 98% ee. The results firstly reported the application of new bacterial strain in the hydrolysis of tert-butyl leucine amide to produce optically active L-tert-butyl leucine in an efficient way with investigation in detail.