Comparison of the l-malic acid production by isolated fumarase and fumarase in permeabilized baker's yeast cells

Production of l-malic acid from fumaric acid was performed by the action of the fumarase isolated from porcine heart and the fumarase in permeabilized baker's yeast cells. For each biocatalyst kinetic parameters were determined by measuring the initial reaction rate, and confirmed in the batch experiments. It was found that this reaction is inhibited by the product. Equilibrium conversion of about 80% was achieved in a batch mode by both biocatalysts. No by-product was detected during the l-malic production by permeabilized yeast cell. It was calculated by using the proposed model and experimentally verifies that 10 mg isolated fumarase gives the identical productivity in this biotransformation as 94.4 g of baker's yeast.