Bioresources and Bioprocessing

A straightforward chemobiocatalytic route for one-pot valorization of glucose into 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan

In this work, authors presented a simple chemobiocatalytic route for glucose valorization into 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF) in one pot, without purification of the intermediate 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Six candidate alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes were located from Meyerozyma guilliermondii SC1103, based on comparative transcriptome analysis and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. An ADH (MgADH1) was identified upon evaluation of catalytic performances of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae harboring candidate ADHs in HMF reduction. Soluble expression of the enzyme in S. cerevisiae was greatly enhanced by its codon optimization, leading to improved HMF tolerance (up to 400 mM). In a fed-batch process, BHMF at 473 mM (60.5 g/L) was produced in 30 h by recombinant S. cerevisiae_MgADH1. A chemobiocatalytic route toward BHMF was constructed by merging CaCl₂-mediated isomerization and dehydration with biocatalytic reduction with an overall yield of 42% from glucose. This work is useful example for one-pot conversion of inexpensive biomass into valuable biobased chemicals in green manufacturing.