Whole-Cell-Catalyzed Multiple Regio- and Stereoselective Functionalizations in Cascade Reactions Enabled by Directed Evolution.

Biocatalytic cascade reactions using isolated stereoselective enzymes or whole cells in one-pot processes lead to value-added chiral products in a single workup. The concept has been restricted mainly to starting materials and intermediate products that are accepted by the respective wild-type enzymes. In the present study, we exploited directed evolution as a means to create E. coli whole cells for regio- and stereoselective cascade sequences that are not possible using man-made catalysts. The approach is illustrated using P450-BM3 in combination with appropriate alcohol dehydrogenases as catalysts in either two-, three-, or four-step cascade reactions starting from cyclohexane, cyclohexanol, or cyclohexanone, respectively, leading to either (R,R)-, (S,S)-, or meso-cyclohexane-1,2-diol. The one-pot conversion of cyclohexane into (R)- or (S)-2-hydroxycyclohexanone in the absence of ADH is also described.