Highly Enantioselective Production of Chiral Secondary Alcohols with Candida zeylanoides as a New Whole Cell Biocatalyst

Engin Şahin, Enes Dertli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The increasing demand for biocatalysts in synthesizing enantiomerically pure chiral alcohols results from the outstanding characteristics of biocatalysts in reaction, economic, and ecological issues. Herein, fifteen yeast strains belonging to three food originated yeast species Candida zeylanoides, Pichia fermentans, and Saccharomyces uvarum were tested for their capability for asymmetric reduction of acetophenone to 1-phenylethanol as biocatalysts. Of these strains, C. zeylanoides P1 showed an effective asymmetric reduction ability. Under optimized conditions, substituted acetophenones were converted to corresponding optically active secondary alcohols in up to 99% enantiomeric excess and at high yields. The preparative scale asymmetric bioreduction of 4-nitroacetophenone (1m) by C. zeylanoides P1 gave (S)-1-(4-nitrophenyl)ethanol (2m) with 89% yield and > 99% enantiomeric excess. Compound 2m has been obtained in an enantiomerically pure and inexpensive form. Additionally, these results indicate that C. zeylanoides P1 is a promising biocatalyst for the synthesis of chiral alcohols in industry.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1700121
JournalChemistry and Biodiversity
Volume14
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Keywords

  • Asymmetric reduction
  • Biocatalysis
  • Biotransformations
  • Candida zeylanoides
  • Whole yeast cells

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