Biocatalytic Applications

Abstract

Of all the types of enzyme-catalyzed reactions, hydrolytic transformations involving amide- and ester-bonds are the easiest to perform using proteases, esterases or lipases. A lack of sensitive cofactors which would have to be recycled, and a large number of readily available enzymes possessing relaxed substrate specificities to choose from, are the main features which have made hydrolases the favorite class of enzymes for organic chemists during the past decade. About two thirds of the total research in the field of biotransformations has been performed using hydrolytic enzymes of this type [1, 2]. The reversal of the reaction, giving rise to ester- or amide-synthesis, has been particularly well investigated using enzymes in solvent systems of low water activity. The special methodologies involved in this latter type of reaction are described in Chapter 3.1.