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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Engineered phenylalanine dehydrogenase in organic solvents: homogeneous and biphasic enzymatic reactions
Gianfranco Cainelli1, Paul C Engel, Paola Galletti
1Department of Chemistry "G. Ciamician", University of Bologna, Via Selmi 2, I-40126 Bologna, Italy. gianfranco.cainelli@unibo.it
Abstract:
The use of engineered phenylalanine dehydrogenase N145A supported on Celite for the reductive amination of phenylpyruvic acid in homogeneous and biphasic aqueous-organic solvents is reported. The results indicate that the immobilised biocatalyst is remarkably robust, even in the presence of high concentrations of polar or non-polar organic solvents such as acetone, methanol, n-hexane, toluene and methylene chloride. Cofactor regeneration with alcohol dehydrogenase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and ethanol was successfully explored. Application to the non-natural poorly water-soluble 2-oxo acid p-NO(2)-phenylpyruvic acid was successfully performed, resulting in the biocatalytic synthesis of p-NO(2)-phenylalanine. In all cases 100% stereoselectivity for the production of the amino acid was retained.
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