An artificial enzyme cascade composed of an alcohol dehydrogenase, an enoate reductase and a Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase was investigated in vitro to gain deeper mechanistic insights and understand the assets and drawbacks of this multi-step biocatalysis. Several substrates composed of different structural motifs were examined and provided access to functionalized chiral compounds in high yields (up to >99%) and optical purities (up to >99%). Hence, the applicability of the presented enzymatic cascade was exploited for the synthesis of biorenewable polyesters.
Keywords: Alcohol dehydrogenase; Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenase; Biorenewable polyesters; Enoate reductase; Multi-step biocatalysis.
Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.