We report the first example of directed evolution of a P450 monooxygenase with inverted enantioselectivity for asymmetric biohydroxylation. The biohydroxylation product of the best mutant 1AF4A has an ee of 83% (R) compared to the wild type's ee of 43% (S).

Industrial biotechnology involves the use of enzymes and microorganisms to produce value-added chemicals from renewable sources. Because of its association with reduced energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste generation, industrial biotechnology is a rapidly growing field. Here we highlight a variety of important tools for industrial biotechnology, including protein engineering, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, systems biology, and downstream processing. In addition, we show how these tools have been successfully applied in several case studies, including the production of 1, 3-propanediol, lactic acid, and biofuels. It is expected that industrial biotechnology will be increasingly adopted by chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural industries.

The development of a scalable asymmetric route to a new calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist is described. The synthesis of the two key fragments was redefined, and the intermediates were accessed through novel chemistry. Chiral lactam 2 was prepared by an enzyme mediated dynamic kinetic transamination which simultaneously set two stereocenters. Enzyme evolution resulted in an optimized transaminase providing the desired configuration in >60:1 syn/anti. The final chiral center was set via a crystallization induced diastereomeric transformation. The asymmetric spirocyclization to form the second fragment, chiral spiro acid intermediate 3, was catalyzed by a novel doubly quaternized phase transfer catalyst and provided optically pure material on isolation. With the two fragments in hand, development of their final union by amide bond formation and subsequent direct isolation is described. The described chemistry has been used to deliver over 100 kg of our desired target, ubrogepant.

A recombinant Escherichia coli expressing P450 pyr monooxygenase of Sphingomonas sp. HXN-200 was developed as a useful biocatalyst for regioand stereoselective hydroxylations, with no side reaction and easy cell growth. The resting E. coli cells showed an activity of 4.1 U/g cdw and 9.9 U/g cdw for the hydroxylation of N-benzylpyrrolidin-2-one 1 and N-benzyloxycarbonylpyrrolidine 3, respectively, being as active as the wide-type strain. Biohydroxylation of N-benzylpyrrolidin-2-one 1 with the resting cells gave (S)-N-benzyl-4-hydroxypyrrolidin-2-one 2 in > 99% ee and 10.8 mM, a 2.6 times increase of product concentration in comparison with the wildtype strain. Biohydroxylation of N-tert-butoxycarbonylpiperidin-2-one 5, N-benzylpiperidine 7 and Ntert-butoxycarbonylazetidine 9 with the E. coli cells afforded the corresponding 4-hydroxypiperidin-2-one 6, 4-hydroxypiperidine 8, and 3-hydroxyazetidine 10 in 14 mM, 17 mM, and 21 mM, respectively. Moreover, hydroxylation of (À)-b-pinene 11 with the recombinant E. coli cells showed excellent regio-and stereoselectivity and gave (1R)-trans-pinocarveol 12 in 82% yield and 4.1 mM, which is over 200 times higher than that obtained with the best biocatalytic system known thus far. The recombinant strain was also able to hydroxylate other types of substrates with unique selectivity: biohydroxylation of norbornane 13 gave exo-norbornaeol 14, with exo/endo selectivity of 95%; tetralin 15 and 6-methoxytetralin 17 were hydroxylated at the non-activated 2-position, for the first time, with regioselectivities of 83-84%.