RIESKE NON-HEME DIOXYGENASES: VERSATILE BIOCATALYSTS FOR THE GENERATION OF VICINAL CIS-DIOLS

摘要

Vicinal cis-diols are a common motif in many biologically active natural products and important intermediates in the flavor and fragrance as well as pharmaceutical industries. Most of the chemical approaches for cis-dihydroxylations are based on transition-metal catalysts like osmium and manganese, which are expensive and toxic. Hence, the enzyme-catalyzed asymmetric dihydroxylation is a powerful tool to overcome the obstacles encountered using such chemical approaches. With the Rieske non-heme dioxygenases (ROs) a promising biocatalytic alternative to generate very selectively vicinal cis-diols is at our disposal. Also known as the non-heme analog to P450 monooxygenases, these enzymes are multicomponent systems, which only need molecular oxygen for the vicinal cis-dihydroxylation (s. Figure 1).