Promiscuous activity of C-acyltransferase from Pseudomonas protegens: synthesis of acetanilides in aqueous buffer

Amide bond formation has considerable significance in synthetic chemistry. Although the C-acyltransferase from Pseudomonas protegens has been found to catalyze C-C bond formation in nature as well as in in vitro experiments with non-natural substrates, it is now shown that the enzyme is also able to catalyze amide formation using aniline derivatives as substrates with promiscuous activity. Importantly, the amide formation was enabled in aqueous buffer. Identifying phenyl acetate as the most suitable acetyl donor, the products were obtained with up to >99% conversion and up to 99% isolated yield.