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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
One-way biohydrogen transfer for oxidation of sec-alcohols
Iván Lavandera1, Alexander Kern, Verena Resch
1Research Centre Applied Biocatalysis c/o Department of Chemistry, Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Abstract:
Quasi-irreversible oxidation of sec-alcohols was achieved via biocatalytic hydrogen transfer reactions using alcohol dehydrogenases employing selected ketones as hydrogen acceptors, which can only be reduced but not oxidized. Thus, only 1 equiv of oxidant was required instead of a large excess. For the oxidation of both isomers of methylcarbinols a single nonstereoselective short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase from Sphingobium yanoikuyae was identified and overexpressed in E. coli.
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