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Biocatalytic synthesis of optically active tertiary alcohols

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Abstract

The enzymatic preparation of optically pure tertiary alcohols under sustainable conditions has received much attention. The conventional chemical synthesis of these valuable building blocks is still hampered by the use of harmful reagents such as heavy metal catalysts. Successful examples in biocatalysis used esterases, lipases, epoxide hydrolases, halohydrin dehalogenases, thiamine diphosphate-dependent enzymes, terpene cyclases, -acetylases, and -dehydratases. This mini-review provides an overview on recent developments in the discovery of new enzymes, their functional improvement by protein engineering, the design of chemoenzymatic routes leading to tertiary alcohols, and the discovery of entirely new biotransformations.

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Acknowledgments

RK is grateful to the “Fonds der Chemischen Industrie” (Frankfurt, Germany) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry of Biogenic Resources, Technische Universität München, Schulgasse 16, 94315, Straubing, Germany

    Robert Kourist

  2. Department of Biotechnology and Enzyme Catalysis, Institute of Biochemistry, Greifswald University, Felix-Hausdorff Str. 4, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Uwe T. Bornscheuer

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  1. Robert Kourist
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Correspondence to Uwe T. Bornscheuer.

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Kourist, R., Bornscheuer, U.T. Biocatalytic synthesis of optically active tertiary alcohols. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 91, 505–517 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3418-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3418-9

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