Enzymatic transformation

The synthesis of some commercially important bulk sweeteners such as isomaltulose (Palatinose), isomaltitol (Palatinit), and Actilight (formerly Neosugar) has been achieved by enzymatic transformations of sucrose. 

Drugs and other chemicals such as food additives or insecticides foreign to the body undergo enzymatic transformations that result in loss of pharmacological activity detoxification), or lead to the formation of metabolites with therapeutic or toxic effects bioactivation). 

Fermentation An anaerobic bioprocess. An enzymatic transformation of organic substrates, especially carbohydrates, generally accompanied by the evolution of gas as a byproduct. Fermentation is used in various industrial processes for the manufacture of products (e.g., alcohols, organic acids, solvents, and cheese) by the addition of yeasts, moulds, and bacteria. 

The enzymatic transformation of natural products is by for file most attractive option. In this approach, it can be envisaged that sterols, which are relatively abundant, may be selectively modified to produce desired products. Hie diversity of enzyme activities, their reaction specificity, regiospecificity and stereospedfidty are all features which could contribute to carrying out the desired changes. This does not mean, however, that transformations using enzyme systems are simple. Nevertheless, biotransformations have become of vital importance in the production of steroids. 

An interesting combination of enzymatic with non-enzymatic transformation in a one-pot three-step multiple sequence was reported by Waldmann and coworkers [82]. Phenols 125 in the presence of oxygen and enzyme tyrosinase are hydroxylated to catechols 126 which are then oxidized in situ to ortho quinones 127. These intermediates subsequently undergo a Diels-Alder reaction with inverse electron demand by reaction with different dienophiles (Table 4.19) to give endo bicyclic 1,2-diketones 128 and 129 in good yields. 

In the third example of the previous paragraph [9], the reaction conditions described are similar to those used for the enzymatic transformations in bulk organic media, an area that was pioneered by Klibanov and coworkers in the 1980s [12] and later investigated and synthetically exploited worldwide [13]. 

As shown in this chapter, by focusing on the modulation of enzyme selectivity by medium engineering, quite simple modifications of the solvent composition can really have significant effects on the performances of the biocatalysts. The main drawback remains the lack of reliable predictive models. Despite the significant research efforts (particularly in the last decade), it is likely that a reasonable foresight of the enantioselective outcome of an enzymatic transformation will continue to be based solely on a careful analysis of the increasingly numerous literature reports. 

Very recently Crawford has reported an interesting enzymatic transformation catalyzed by CALB in which the yield was >60% and the product was obtained in very high optical purity (Figure 4.33) [60]. Furthermore, the remaining starting material was racemic. 

Enantioselective Enzymatic Transformations of Alcohols 153 - y NHCbz Lipase, VA AcO>> - " y< NHCbz... 

Macromolecular Rapid Communications 22,No.l6, 7thNov. 2001, p.1325-9 ORGANIC SOLVENT-FREE ENZYMATIC TRANSFORMATION OF... 

Details are given of the enzymatic transformation of polycaprolactone into repolymerisable oligomers in supercritical carbon dioxide. The object was to establish a sustainable chemical recycling system for polycaprolactone. 14 refs. 

An important breakthrough in HTS ee assays came from the group of Reetz in late 1990, with the introduction of mass spectroscopy (MS)-based procedures [90]. These methods use special asymmetrically isotope-labeled compounds. Enzymatic transformations of these compounds usually lead to two pseudoenantiomeric compounds whose relative concentration can be estimated using MS techniques. 

Figure 5. Enzymatic transformation of the PSP toxins in the littleneck clams. HPLC was used extensively to determine the presence and characteristics of these conversions. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. 15. Copyright 1983 Academic Press, Inc.).

Remarkably, alkanes are oxidatively transformed by biological organisms at benign temperatures and pressures. Clearly, enzymatic transformations of alkanes and their well studied mechanisms (e.g., for cytochrome P450) are beyond the... 

Vamvakas S, Dekant W, Berthold K, et al. 1987. Enzymatic transformation of mercapturic acids derived from halogenated alkenes to reactive and mutagenic intermediates. Biochem Pharmacol 36 2741-3748. 

The results presented in Tables 3 and 4 deserve some comments. First, a variety of enzymes, including whole-cell preparations, proved suitable for the resolution of different hydroxyalkanephosphorus compounds, giving both unreacted substrates and the products of the enzymatic transformation in good yields and, in some cases, even with full stereoselectivity. Application of both methodologies, acylation of hydroxy substrates rac-41 and rac-43 or the reverse (hydrolysis of the acylated substrates rac-42 and rac-44), enables one to obtain each desired enantiomer of the product. This turned out to be particularly important in those cases when a chemical transformation OH OAc or reverse was difficult to perform. As an example, our work is shown in Scheme 3. In this case, chemical hydrolysis of the acetyl derivative 46 proved difficult due to some side reactions and therefore an enzymatic hydrolysis, using the same enzyme as that in the acylation reaction, was applied. Not only did this provide access to the desired hydroxy derivative 45 but it also allowed to improve its enantiomeric excess. In this way. 

Mutagenesis of known enzyme towards a desired activity will be the fastest developing direction. The use of mutants of simple serine-hydrolases, which exhibit the phosphotriesterase activity (in contrast to the native enzymes, which are irreversibly inhibited under such conditions), clearly shows that practically any kind of substrates can be enzymatically transformed. The... 

De Raddt A et al. (1992) Microbial reagents in organic synthesis—microbial and enzymatic transformation of nitriles. In Servi S (ed) NATO ASI Series C, vol 381. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 209-253... 

Such an inter-type difference will not be utilized in this book, mainly because it complicates the classification and is not necessary as tbe focus is placed on the substrates and the products. The argument is also valid for enzymatic transformations [12d, 14], where one enzymatic system with one enzyme or different independent enzymatic systems with one or more enzymes may be used. In Nature, as well as in several artificial enzymatic domino reactions, a mixture of different enzymes catalyzing independent cycles is employed. 

It should be noted that as early as 1993, Kurth and coworkers investigated the enzymatic transformation of bis-epoxides of type 8-51 using cytosolic epoxide hydrolase from rat liver. However, at that time the regio- and stereochemistry of the obtained THFs had not been investigated. 

Wichmann, R., Wandrey, C., Biickmann, A.F. and Kula, M.-R. (1981) Continuous enzymatic transformation in an enzyme membrane reactor with simultaneous NAD(H) regeneration. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 23, 2789-2796. 

Zhu, D., Ankati, H., Mukheijee, C. et al. (2007) Asymmetric reduction of /3-ketonitriles with a recombinant carbonyl reductase and enzymatic transformation to optically pure /3-hydroxy carboxylic acids. Organic Letters, 9 (13), 2561-2563. 

In this chapter, we will introduce an exciting class of natural product biosynthetic enzymes, the modular synthases, as well as their associated enzyme partners. We will discuss the use of metabolic engineering as a tool for small-molecule discovery and development, both through directed fermentation and combinatorial biosynthesis. In addition, we will review six classes of partner enzymes involved in the modification of polyketide (PK) and nonribosomal peptide (NRP) natural products. We believe that these enzymatic transformations hold great opportunities for synthetic chemists and will serve as the foundation for a new trend in both discovery and process chemistry. 

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