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An efficient directed evolution strategy for enhancing activity and manipulating stereoselectivity of a monoamine oxidase is presented.

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A de novo preparation of α-keto-imides via ynamide oxidation is described. With a number of alkyne oxidation conditions screened, a highly efficient RuO2-NaIO4 mediated oxidation and a DMDO oxidation have been identified to tolerate a wide range of ynamide types. In addition to accessing a wide variety of α-keto-imides, the RuO2-NaIO4 protocol provides a novel entry to the vicinal tricarbonyl motif via oxidation of push-pull ynamides, and imido acylsilanes from silyl-substituted ynamides. Chemoselective oxidation of ynamides containing olefins can be achieved using DMDO, while the RuO2-NaIO4 protocol is not effective. These studies provide further support for the synthetic utility of ynamides.

A Rh(I)-catalyzed demethylation-cyclization sequence for a direct transformation of o-anisole-substituted ynamides to benzofurans is described here. The Ag salt functions synergistically with Rh(I) for the key demethylation step.

The current toolkit of biocatalysts for the production of enantiomerically pure chiral amines is largely restricted to amine transaminases, ammonia lyases, or the genetic variants of monoamine oxidase N(MAO-N) from Aspergillus niger. Flavindependent amine oxidases have the apparent advantage of using molecular oxygen as a stoichiometric oxidant and their reactions are irreversible. To expand the toolkit and increase the substrate spectrum of a bacterial and flavin-dependent cyclohexylamine oxidase (CHAO) to enable deracemization of secondary amines, saturation mutagenesis of 11 amino acid residues located around the cyclohexanone substrate within a distance of 5 Å, followed by iterative saturation mutagenesis of four beneficial mutants, were performed. Screening with 2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline as the substrate generated two improved CHAO variants, T198FL199S and T198FL199SM226F, that exhibited up to 406 times higher catalytic efficiency than the wild-type CHAO. Besides, high stereoselectivity for 2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline and other 2-substituted-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines was demonstrated. In particular, deracemization of 2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline by Escherichia coli whole cells expressing CHAO mutant T198FL199SM226F led to the production of (R)-2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline with high yield (76%) and enantiomeric excess (ee, 98%). Tetrahydroquinolines are important building blocks of natural and synthetic products useful in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.

It is well-known that the equilibrium of the enzymatic Kolbe–Schmitt reaction is unfavorable for the carboxylation direction. A new method was developed to push the reaction equilibrium toward the carboxylation of resorcinol and catechol by adding quaternary ammonium salts into the reaction system. The yields of the carboxylation products were increased up to 97% from less than 40%. The precipitation capacity of the quaternary ammonium salts of the carboxylic acid products is the driving force for the reaction equilibrium shift. Therefore, effective enzymatic carboxylation of phenols has been achieved for the first time.

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