Enzymatic synthesis of glutathione using yeast cells in two-stage reaction

In the present study, permeated yeast cells were used as the catalyst to synthesize glutathione. When waste cells of brewer’s yeast were incubated with the three precursor amino acids and glucose for 36 h, 899 mg/L of glutathione were produced. To release the feedback inhibition of γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase caused by glutathione, two-stage reaction was adopted. In the first stage, glycine was omitted from the reaction mixture and only γ-glutamylcysteine was formed. Glycine was then added in the second stage, and 1,569 mg/L of glutathione were produced. The conditions of the two-stage reaction were optimized using Plackett–Burman design and response surface methodology. Under the optimized condition, commercially available baker’s yeast produced 3,440 mg/L of glutathione in 30 h, and most of the produced glutathione was in the medium. The two-stage reaction could effectively reduce the feedback inhibition caused by glutathione, but degradation of glutathione was significant.