Complete In Vitro Conversion of n-Xylose to Xylitol by Coupling Xylose Reductase and Formate Dehydrogenase

Artificial coupling of one enzyme with another can provide an efficient means for the production of industrially important chemicals. Xylose reductase has been recently discovered to be useful in the reductive production of xylitol. However, a limitation of its in vitro or in vivo use is the regeneration of the cofactor NAD(P)H in the enzyme activity. In the present study, an efficient process for the production of xylitol from D-xylose was established by coupling two enzymes. A NADH-dependent xylose reductase (XR) from Pichia stipitis catalyzed the reduction of xylose with a stoichiometric consumption of NADH, and the resulting cofactor $NAD^+$ was continuously re-reduced by formate dehydrogenase (FDH) for regeneration. Using simple kinetic analyses as tools for process optimization, suitable conditions for the performance and yield of the coupled reaction were established. The optimal reaction temperature and pH were determined to be about $30^{\circ}C$ and 7.0, respectively. Formate, as a substrate of FDH, affected the yield and cofactor regeneration, and was, therefore, adjusted to a concentration of 20 mM. When the total activity of FDH was about 1.8-fold higher than that of XR, the performance was better than that by any other activity ratios. As expected, there were no distinct differences in the conversion yields of reactions, when supplied with the oxidized form $NAD^+$ instead of the reduced form NADH, as a starting cofactor for regeneration. Under these conditions, a complete conversion (>99%) could be readily obtained from a small-scale batch reaction.