Characterization of four diol dehydrogenases for enantioselective synthesis of chiral vicinal diols

Enantiopure vicinal diols are important building blocks used in the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds. Diol dehydrogenase(DDH) mediated stereoselective oxidation of racemic vicinal is an efficient way to prepare enantiopure vicinal diols. In this study, four new bacterial DDHs(AnDDH from Anoxybacillus sp. P3 H1 B, HcDDH from Hazenella coriacea, GzDDH from Geobacillus zalihae and LwDDH from Leptotrichia wadei) were mined from the GenBank database and expressed in E. coli T7.The four DDHs were purified and biochemically characterized for oxidation activity toward(R)-1-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol, with the optimal reaction condition of pH9.0(AnDDH), 10.0(HcDDH) and 11.0(GzDDH and LwDDH) and the temperatures at 40 ℃(AnDDH), 50 ℃(HcDDH) and 60 ℃(GzDDH and LwDDH), respectively. The four enzymes were stable at the pH from 7.0 to 9.0 and below 40 ℃.Kinetic parameters of four DDHs showed that the HcDDH from Hazenella coriacea had high activity toward a broad range of vicinal diols. A series of racemic vicinal diols were successfully resolved by recombinant E. coli(HcDDH-NOX) resting cells co-expression of an NADH oxidase(NOX), affording(S)-diols and(1 S, 2 S)-trans-diols in ≥99% ee. The synthetic potential of HcDDH was proved by E. coli(HcDDH-NOX) via kinetic resolution of racemic trans-1,2-indandiol on a 100 ml scale reaction,(S, S)-trans-1,2-indandiol was prepared in 46.7% yield and >99% ee. In addition, asymmetric reduction of four α-Hydroxy ketones(10–300 mmol·L^(-1)) by E. coli(HcDDH-GDH) resting cells resulted in >99% ee and69–98% yields of(R)-vicinal diols. The current research expands the toolbox of DDHs to synthesize chiral vicinal diols and demonstrated that the mined Hc DDH is a potential enzyme in the synthesis of a broad range of chiral vicinal diols.

Asymmetric reduction of α-hydroxy aromatic ketones to chiral aryl vicinal diols using carrot enzymes system

Asymmetric reduction of ct-hydroxy aromatic ketones was carded out by using carrot enzymes system, yielding corresponding chiral vicinal diols with special functional groups. The optimum reaction conditions were obtained after investigation of various influencing factors. Chiral aryl vicinal diols were produced with good yields and excellent enantiomeric excesses under appropriate conditions. Meanwhile, the steric factors and electronic effects of the substituents on the aromatic ring were shown to have an interesting influence on both yield and enantioselectivity.