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The potential of lyases for the industrial production of optically active compounds
M J van der Werf1, W J van den Tweel, J Kamphuis
1Department of Food Science, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
Trends in Biotechnology
|March 1, 1994
Abstract:
Lyases catalyse the cleavage of C-C, C-N, C-O and other bonds by elimination to produce double bonds or, conversely, catalyse the addition of groups to double bonds. These enzymes do not require cofactor recycling, show an absolute stereospecificity and can give a theoretical yield of 100%, compared with only 50% for enantiomeric resolutions. Lyases are therefore attracting considerable interest as biocatalysts for the production of optically active compounds, and have already found application in several large commercial processes.