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Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Enzymatic Cascade Reactions for the Synthesis of Chiral Amino Alcohols from L-lysine
Published on: February 16, 2018
Enzymatic cascades for the stereo-complementary epimerisation of in situ generated epoxy alcohols
Yu-Chang Liu1, Chao Guo1, Yan Liu2
1Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China. wuzhl@cib.ac.cn and Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610041, China and Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
The synthesis of optically pure secondary epoxy alcohols from racemic allylic alcohols using a single whole-cell biocatalyst of recombinant Escherichia coli coexpressing three oxidoreductases is described. The cascade involves the concurrent action of a styrene monooxygenase that catalyzes the formation of the chiral epoxy group, and two alcohol dehydrogenases that fulfil the epimerisation of the hydroxy group. Two sets of alcohol dehydrogenases were each applied to couple with styrene monooxygenase in order to realize the epimerisation in a stereo-complementary manner. Excellent enantio- and diastereo-selectivities were achieved for most of the 12 substrates.
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