bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/603795; this version posted April 9, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. Engineering a seven enzyme biotransformation using mathematical modelling and characterized enzyme parts William Finnigan1,†, Rhys Cutlan2, Radka Snajdrova3,‡, Joseph P. Adams3, Jennifer A. Littlechild1 and Nicholas J. Harmer1,2* 1Department of Biosciences, Henry Wellcome Building for Biocatalysis, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QD, U.K. 2Living Systems Institute, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QD, U.K. 3GlaxoSmithKline R&D Ltd., Medicines Research Centre, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 2NY, U.K. *Corresponding author: Nicholas J. Harmer, Living Systems Institute, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QD, U.K., tel: +44 1392 725179, e-mail:
[email protected] Keywords: Enzyme cascade, Kinetics, Cofactor recycling, Pathway optimization, Isolated enzymes, Reaction engineering, in vitro biocatalysis. Abstract Multi-step enzyme reactions offer considerable cost and productivity benefits. Process models offer a route to understanding the complexity of these reactions, and allow for their optimization. Despite the increasing prevalence of multi-step biotransformations, there are few examples of process models for enzyme reactions. From a toolbox of characterized enzyme parts, we demonstrate the construction of a process model for a seven enzyme, three step biotransformation using isolated enzymes. Enzymes for cofactor regeneration were employed to make this in vitro reaction economical. Good modelling practice was critical in evaluating the impact of approximations and experimental error.