Fermentation dehydration mechanisms

Cyclohexadienol was prepared by Rickborn in 1970 from reaction of the epoxide of 1,4-cyclohexadiene with methyl lithium.100 A hydrate of naphthalene, 1-hydroxy-1,2-dihydro-naphthalene was prepared by Bamberger in 1895 by allylic bromination of O-acylated tetralol (1-hydroxy-l,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene) followed by reaction with base.101 Hydrates of naphthalene and other polycylic aromatics are also available from oxidative fermentation of dihydroaromatic molecules, which occurs particularly efficiently with a mutant strain (UV4) of Pseudomonas putida.102,103 The hydrates are alcohols and they undergo acid-catalyzed dehydration to form the aromatic molecule by the same mechanism as other alcohols, except that the thermodynamic driving force provided by the aromatic product makes deprotonation of the carbocation (arenonium ion) a fast reaction, so that in contrast to simple alcohols, formation of the carbocation is rate-determining (Scheme 6).104,105... 

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