Dehydrogenase pathway, one of diaminopimelate pathway, is important to the biosynthesis of L-lysine and peptidoglycan via one single reaction catalyzed by meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase (DapDH). In this study, the thermostable DapDH was introduced into diaminopimelate pathway that increased the final titer (from 71.8 to 119.5 g/L), carbon yield (from 35.3% to 49.1%) and productivity (from 1.80 to 2.99 g/(L∙h)) of L-lysine by LATR12-2∆rpiB::ddhSt in fed-batch fermentation. To do this, the kinetic properties and the effects of different DapDHs on L-lysine production were investigated, and the results indicated that overexpression of StDapDH in LATR12-2 was beneficial to construct an L-lysine producer with good productive performance because it exhibited the best of kinetic characteristics and optimal temperature as well as thermostability in reductive amination. Furthermore, ammonium availability was optimized, and found that 20 g/L of (NH4)2SO4 was the optimal ammonium concentration for improving the efficiency of L-lysine production by LATR12-2∆rpiB::ddhSt. Metabolomics analysis showed that introducing the StDapDH significantly enhanced carbon flux into pentose phosphate pathway and L-lysine biosynthetic pathway, thus increasing the levels of NADPH and precursors for L-lysine biosynthesis. This is the first report of a rational modification of diaminopimelate pathway that improves the efficiency of L-lysine production through overexpression of thermostable DapDH in E. coli.