Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 16, 2026

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
Recyclable Whole-Cell Biotransformation System for the Direct Hydroxylation of Propane Catalyzed by a Robust
Yuki Sugai1, Masayuki Karasawa1, Osami Shoji1
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan.
Abstract:
We report a decoy molecule-based whole-cell biotransformation system that achieves the direct hydroxylation of propane to 2-propanol using wild-type cytochrome P450BM3 expressed in Escherichia coli. With the most effective decoy molecule N-(2-cyclopentylethyl)-prolyl-phenylalanine (2CPE-Pro-Phe), 2-propanol was produced at a final concentration of 29 mM with a high selectivity of 99%. The catalytic activity achieved using this approach was higher than that achieved using previously reported P450BM3 mutants, demonstrating the potential of decoy molecule-assisted P450BM3 for the scalable conversion of gaseous alkanes under mild conditions. The decoy molecule system enables the use of stable wild-type P450BM3, maintaining long-term activity without deactivationan advantage over engineered mutants, which often suffer from reduced stability.
Related Concept Videos
Bioremediation
Hydroboration-Oxidation of Alkenes
Drug Biotransformation: Overview
Drug Metabolism: Phase I Reactions
Lipid Catabolism
Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...

