Sulfatases are a heterogenic group of hydrolytic enzymes which catalyse the cleavage of the sulfate ester bond yielding the corresponding alcohol and hydrogen sulfate. In contrast to the more commonly employed hydrolytic enzymes, such as proteases, esterases and lipases, they show not only enantioselectivity -by preference of a given substrate enantiomer over its mirror-image counterpart -but also stereoselectivity with respect to the stereochemical course of their action. Depending on the enzyme, sulfate ester hydrolysis may proceed either through retention or inversion of configuration at the chiral carbon centre (Scheme 3.1). Whereas breakage of the SÀO bond leads to retention, CÀO bond cleavage results in inversion of configuration (Scheme 3.1). 1 The rare feature of double selectivities makes them top candidates for the deracemization 6 of sec-alcohols via enantio-convergent hydrolysis of their corresponding sulfate esters. 2 Overall, retaining sec-alkylsulfatase activity has been detected in Planctomycetes spp. (such as Rhodopirellula baltica DSM 10527; 3 complementary inverting sulfatase activity was found in Actinomycetes (e.g. Rhodococcus ruber DSM 44541 2,4 ), Archaea (e.g. Sulfolobus spp. 5 ) and pseudomonads. 7 Among the latter group, Pseudomonas sp. DSM 6611 was identified as top candidate by displaying excellent stereo-and enantio-selectivities for a range of sec-alkyl sulfate esters by transforming the (R)-enantiomer of the rac-sulfate ester into the corresponding (S)-alcohol (Scheme 3.2). 7
Practical Methods for Biocatalysis and BiotransformationsEdited